Stats: Hardik Pandya's quick-fire fifty on Test debut

Padnya hit a total of 3 sixes in the innings to become the first Indian to hit more than two sixes on Test debut.

By Sampath Bandarupalli

Updated - 27 Jul 2017, 17:19 IST

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Hardik Pandya made his bat talk on his Test debut scoring a quick fifty against Sri Lanka on the 2nd day of the Galle Test. Pandya walked out to bat when the Indian score board read 491/6 and they were looking for some quick runs to get anywhere close to 600 which could give a chance to have a go at the Lankans towards the end of the day. It was a perfect situation for the all-rounder to play his natural game.

He opened his account with a boundary on the 3rd ball he faced charging down the ground to Rangana Herath. But wickets of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja seemed to have put Pandya on the back foot and the right-hander got lucky when Dimuth Karunaratne dropped him in the slips. With Mohammed Shami offering stable support from the other end, Pandya too went for his shots smashing the pacers behind square to rattle their short ball tactics.

He hit a total of 3 sixes in the innings to become the first Indian to hit more than two sixes on Test debut. Previously, 7 players had hit 2 sixes on their Test debut including 4 players hitting two sixes in the same innings on debut.

Most sixes on Test debut by Indians:

Sixes Player 1st inns 2nd inns Runs Opposition Ground Start Date
3 HH Pandya 50 – 50  Sri Lanka Galle 26-Jul-2017
2 Dilawar Hussain 59 57 116  England Kolkata 5-Jan-1934
2 CS Nayudu 36 15 51  England Kolkata 5-Jan-1934
2 PH Sharma 54 49 103  West Indies Delhi 11-Dec-1974
2 BS Sandhu 71 12 83  Pakistan Hyderabad (Sind) 14-Jan-1983
2 V Yadav 30 – 30  Zimbabwe Delhi 13-Mar-1993
2 SK Raina 120 – 120  Sri Lanka Colombo (SSC) 26-Jul-2010
2 S Dhawan 187 DNB 187  Australia Mohali 14-Mar-2013

 

Overall, only 10 players before Pandya have hit three or more sixes in an innings on their Test debut. 8 of those managed to strike the biggies in the first innings while Tim Southee and Keshav Maharaj got those in the 2nd innings on debut. Southee hit 9 sixes in an innings on debut while former Australian captain Michael Clarke hit 4. Remaining 9 including Pandya have hit 3 sixes in an innings on debut.

Most sixes in an innings on Test debut:

Player Team Sixes Runs Balls Opposition Ground Start Date
TG Southee  New Zealand 9 77* 40  England Napier 22-Mar-2008
MJ Clarke  Australia 4 151 248  India Bengaluru 6-Oct-2004
BR Taylor  New Zealand 3 105 –  India Kolkata 5-Mar-1965
CG Greenidge  West Indies 3 93 –  India Bengaluru 22-Nov-1974
Z de Bruyn  South Africa 3 83 206  India Kanpur 20-Nov-2004
Abul Hasan  Bangladesh 3 113 123  West Indies Khulna 21-Nov-2012
HD Rutherford  New Zealand 3 171 217  England Dunedin 6-Mar-2013
JC Buttler  England 3 85 83  India Southampton 27-Jul-2014
L Ronchi  New Zealand 3 88 70  England Leeds 29-May-2015
KA Maharaj  South Africa 3 41* 34  Australia Perth 3-Nov-2016
HH Pandya  India 3 50 49  Sri Lanka Galle 26-Jul-2017

 

Hardik Pandya was dismissed by pacer Lahiru Kumara attempting a big blow on the very next ball after completing his fifty. He took 48 balls for his half-century the 2nd fewest by any Indian on their Test debut. Yadavenadra Singh, famously known as the Yuvraj of Patiala scored his fifty in just 42 balls on his debut in 1934 against England.

Fastest fifties by Indians on Test debut:

Balls taken for fifty Player Runs Balls faced Inns Opposition Ground Start Date
42 Yuvraj of Patiala 60 50 4  England Chennai 10-Feb-1934
48 Hardik Pandya 50 49 1  Sri Lanka Galle 26-Jul-2017
50 Shikhar Dhawan 187 174 2  Australia Mohali 14-Mar-2013
59 L Amarnath 118 180 3  England Mumbai 15-Dec-1933
61 L Amar Singh 51 61 4  England Lord’s 25-Jun-1932
64 Cheteshwar Pujara 72 89 4  Australia Bengaluru 9-Oct-2010

 

(Stats as on July 27, 2017)

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