India vs West Indies: Prithvi Shaw becomes youngest Indian to score a century on Test debut

Prithvi Shaw on Thursday became the youngest Indian to score a century on Test debut, against Windies on Day 1 of the first Test at Rajkot. The 18-year-old, who opened the innings for India, reached the landmark in the 33rd over off Keemo Paul’s bowling. Shaw took 99 balls to slam his maiden Test century. [caption id=“attachment_5316031” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prithvi Shaw is the 293rd player to play Test cricket for India. AFP[/caption] Shaw (18 years and 329 days old ) is the fourth youngest overall to score a century on debut. Bangladesh’s Mohammad Ashraful holds the record for scoring 114 on his debut against Sri Lanka when he was 17 years and 61 days old. Ashraful is followed by Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza and Pakistan’s Saleem Malik. Shaw broke a host of records with his debut century. The teenager also became the second youngest Indian to score a Test century after the great Sachin Tendulkar - who was 17 years and 107 days old when he scored his maiden ton. It was the kind of debut that was expected from the Mumbai prodigy as he entertained the crowd with some exquisite square cuts, cover drives and straight drives. He’s also the youngest Indian to score fifty-plus runs on Test debut for India. Shaw surpassed the record set by Abbas Ali Baig — who had scored a fifty against England in 1959 when he was 20 years and 126 days old. Earlier, Shaw was handed his debut cap by captain Virat Kohli after India won the toss and decided to bat first. Shaw is also the youngest specialist Indian batsman to make a Test debut in the 21st century. Along with Shaw, Kuldeep Yadav was also brought back to the side as India went into the match with a three-man spin attack with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.