His quickfire fifty played a part in what has suddenly turned into a very exciting Test match

Danyal Rasool04-Dec-2022For the first three days, it was England who shouted their intentions from Rawalpindi’s rooftops; they were here to win this Test match. That was made obvious by the record-smashing onslaught of the first day. Will Jacks said 24 hours later Pakistan looked like they were content with a draw, whereas his side was going all in on victory. Joe Root on day three echoed those sentiments. Pakistan, meanwhile, were rather more taciturn; the match situation had ensured a more optimistic assessment would have bordered on the delusional.But at stumps on Sunday evening, setting up a final day climax this pitch scarcely deserves, Pakistan’s tenor began to change, and the first hints of confidence seeped back into their outlook. A surprise declaration at tea from England had set them a target of 343 on a surface that looks like it could withstand another four days before the first signs of deterioration. It looked foolhardy at the time, though two quick wickets – including that of Babar Azam – had sceptics swiftly putting their faith in England’s intrepid tactics once more. Add to that an injury to Azhar Ali that threatens further involvement in this match, and a tail that begins at No. 8 for Pakistan, and the ingredients for a historic English win had begun to blend together nicely.But an unbeaten half-century stand under the setting sun between Imam-ul-Haq and Saud Shakeel, with neither batter looking troubled in the least, meant Pakistan’s hopes of running England’s score down were reinvigorated. Pakistan now need a further 263 runs for victory, and with a full day’s play left, the draw has been taken out of the equation altogether. This time, though, it is Pakistan who were bullish with their match evaluation.”We’re talking in the camp that we need to go and win this match,” Agha Salman at the end of play. “We don’t know how the pitch will react on the fifth day, but we have it in our minds that we’ll go for it and try to win it.”England managed to pack so much into another truncated day of Test cricket it’s easy to forget that when play commenced, Salman was the only roadblock to the visitors taking complete control over this Test. Pakistan were still 160 runs behind in their first innings when the seventh wicket fell overnight. A collapse from that point would have left the hosts facing an insurmountable target and the best part of two days to survive. The sledgehammer is England’s scoring rate had virtually guaranteed that.But Salman, playing just his third Test, and the first at home, counter-attacked in a 67 run-stand where his partner, Zahid Mehmood, scored just 5. By the time he fell, Pakistan had whittled England’s lead down to just over 100, and taken most of the first session out of the game. It was a breezy knock (though given England’s truculence, that is relative), his 67-ball 53 decorated with seven fours and a six.”The management tells us to play as we naturally play,” he said. “My game is such I try and score runs and attack. I applied myself today and looked to keep them on the back foot. When you’re playing with the tail, you know you have to score runs, so that decision gets made for you.”The day wasn’t all rosy for him, though. With England making a mockery of a Pakistan bowling attack further depleted by the loss of Haris Rauf, he had the misfortune to be called upon to turn his arm over for five manic overs. England plundered 47 off those 30 balls, but Salman said that was simply a matter of accepting how England play and the advantageous position they found themselves in at the time.”When we started bowling, we tried to restrict the runs and not give them boundary opportunities. But you have to give them credit, they’re playing positive cricket. That shows in their declaration too, which was quite positive. The way they’ve been playing in the last few months, this was expected from them, and we believed they’d put us in to bat around this sort of target. But now we have a chance to win, and that’s what we’re aiming for.”There’s little reason to doubt England’s commitment, but the tone post-match had shifted ever so subtly. The visitors had spoken only of the pursuit of victory over the first three days, but for the first time this Test, assistant coach Paul Collingwood framed the same point in slightly different terms.”It’s been pretty clear we’re willing to lose games for the sake of putting ourselves in a position to won. Some will say it was an early declaration, we’ll see tomorrow if it was. We’re not scared of losing, it takes the consequences away from the players – tomorrow we can hopefully get on the right side of it.”It’s exciting isn’t it – on a pitch that’s been docile, to be in a position to watch an exciting game on the final day is great for everyone. The bigger picture for Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum is for Test cricket is to be entertaining.”That now looks set to happen in spite of the conditions both sides have had to play in, rather than because of them. In a Test where every string has been pulled by England. But tomorrow, they might find out that in Test cricket, control and victory are two very different things.

Khawaja, Smith, Labuschagne and Head scored the bulk of runs, while Boland took everyone by surprise

Sampath Bandarupalli11-Jun-2023

Home comforts

Australia’s road to the final was boosted by their dominance at home; they won eight of the ten home Tests and were the most successful home side in this WTC cycle. They were the only unbeaten side at home, as the remaining two games ended in a draw – both in Sydney, where the weather had a say. One of those came during the 2021-22 Ashes, where Australia had England nine down in the fourth innings at stumps on the final day.

The last time Australia had won a Test in India despite losing the toss had come in Bangalore way back in 1998

Sampath Bandarupalli03-Mar-20231135 Balls bowled across the four innings in Indore, the fourth-shortest completed Test hosted by India. The shortest completed Test in India was 842 balls when the hosts faced England in 2021 in Ahmedabad, followed by 968 balls during the India-Bangladesh Test in Kolkata in 2019 – both being day-night games. Afghanistan’s debut Test in 2018 against India lasted 1028 balls, the shortest red-ball Test in India.2012 The last instance of India losing a Test at home when they won the toss – against England at Eden Gardens. India won the toss in 22 matches at home since that defeat before the Indore Test, winning 19 games and drawing three.9 Wickets for spinners in Indore when batters played on the back foot. In the first two matches of the series, the spinners got only four wickets each when the batters were playing on the back foot.

And when was the last time three batters from the same team topped the ICC Test batting rankings?

Steven Lynch20-Jun-2023At Edgbaston Jimmy Anderson embarked on his tenth Ashes series. Has anyone else played in so many? asked Mark Carlisle form England

Jimmy Anderson has played a part in all ten Ashes series since 2006-07, although he might want to forget 2019 in England, when he managed only four overs before suffering an injury that kept him out for the rest of the summer.There’s a complication here in that the Ashes were not officially at stake in several series (including one-off Tests). For a start the Ashes were inaugurated in 1882, after Australia won a Test at The Oval, so were not actually contested until 1882-83. More recently one-off landmark Tests in 1976-77, 1980 and 1987-88 are not official Ashes matches, while the ECB declined to put the urn up for grabs for the three-match series in 1979-80.And so there are two answers to your question, depending whether you’re talking about all England-Australia Tests, or just official Ashes matches. The only other player to have taken part in ten Ashes series since the Second World War is another Englishman, Colin Cowdrey, between 1954-55 and 1974-75, and including six in Australia. Sticking with Ashes-only for now, the English allrounders Johnny Briggs (1884 to 1899) and Wilfred Rhodes (1899 to 1926), took part in 11 Ashes series, while the famed Surrey opener Jack Hobbs featured in ten. Briggs actually almost made it 12 – he was named in England’s team for the abandoned 1890 Test at Old Trafford, which does not count in the records. The Ashes-only record is held by another Australian, Syd Gregory, who featured in no fewer than 15 different series between 1890 and 1912; in all, he played 52 Tests against England. His sometime team-mate, wicketkeeper Jack Blackham, took part in 11 Ashes series.On balance, I think the overall figures for all England-Australia series are more authentic. In all, Blackham played in 17 series against England, to Gregory’s 15; another early Australian, Alec Bannerman, took part in 13 (only eight of them official Ashes encounters). Two more Australians, Allan Border and George Giffen, also took part in 11 (three non-Ashes each). Apart from Cowdrey and Hobbs, there are nine further players who have appeared in ten series, including Cowdrey and Hobbs, as well as Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch, Rod Marsh and Steve Waugh, who all featured in at least one non-Ashes series.Surrey scored 501 to beat Kent recently. Is this the highest fourth-innings total to win a match in England, or indeed anywhere? asked Chris Harvey from England

Surrey’s 501 for 5 to defeat Kent in Canterbury last week was the fourth-highest successful run-chase in English first-class cricket, and second in the County Championship only to Middlesex’s 502 for 6 to beat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1925. At Lord’s in 1896, Cambridge University amassed 507 for 7 to beat MCC, while four years later the Players defeated the Gentlemen at Lord’s by reaching 502 for 8 in the second innings.Worldwide, a side has only successfully scored 500 or more to win on five other occasions. The highest is West Zone’s 541 for 7 to beat South Zone in the final of India’s Duleep Trophy in Hyderabad in 2009-10. The highest fourth-innings total, regardless of result, remains England’s 654 for 5 (chasing 696) to draw against South Africa in Durban in 1938-39. For the full list of the highest fourth-innings totals (not just in wins), click here.The ICC batting rankings going into the Ashes series had Australians in the top three places. When was the last time this happened? asked Jamie Constantine from Australia

The ICC Test batting rankings issued just before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston last week had Marnus Labuschagne at No. 1, with a ranking of 903. Steve Smith (885) was second, just ahead of Travis Head, whose 163 in the World Test Championship final against India at The Oval boosted his ranking to 884, one more than the New Zealander Kane Williamson.The last time three batters from the same team topped the rankings was back in December 1984, when the top three were the West Indians Gordon Greenidge (810), Clive Lloyd (787) and Larry Gomes (773). For more details, click here.All of Graeme Smith’s 27 Test hundreds came in wins or draws for South Africa•Getty ImagesI heard that England never lost when Geoff Boycott scored a Test century. Is that true, and is it a record? asked Michael Richmond from England

Geoff Boycott scored 22 Test centuries, and it’s true that England did not lose any of those matches. It actually equalled the record at the time, which was held by another famous England batter in Wally Hammond. More recently, Ian Bell also scored 22 Test centuries, and England did not lose any of those matches either. The record, however, is now held by Graeme Smith: he scored 27 Test centuries, and South Africa never lost when he reached three figures. Next on the list is Gordon Greenidge, whose 19 Test centuries all came in West Indian wins or draws, with none in defeat.At the other end of the spectrum, five batters scored seven Test centuries, but did not win any of the matches in which they reached three figures: Asanka Gurusinha (Sri Lanka), Vijay Manjrekar (India), Lawrence Rowe (West Indies), and the New Zealand pair of Bevan Congdon and Andrew Jones (whose seven hundreds all came in draws).Louis Kimber was out obstructing the field in a match I was watching last week. How often has this happened in England? asked David Stevenson from Bristol

The Leicestershire batter Louis Kimber was given out obstructing the field against Gloucestershire in Bristol last week, after catching a ball that bounced up against him – he dropped the ball away from the stumps, but was given out on appeal. It’s a dismissal that would have been recorded as “handled the ball” until the Laws were revised in 2017.Kimber’s was the seventh obstructing the field dismissal in a first-class match in England (the fifth in the County Championship). The previous instance was by Surrey’s Mark Ramprakash, also against Gloucestershire, in Cheltenham in 2011. England’s Len Hutton was out obstructing the field – the only such instance in a Test match – against South Africa at The Oval in 1951. Overall, there have now been 35 instances of this type of dismissal in first-class cricket around the world.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Women’s Ashes heads for Lord’s on Saturday, with debt of gratitude to pioneering generation

Andrew Miller07-Jul-2023When England and Australia walk through the Long Room at Lord’s on Saturday for the third T20I of this year’s Women’s Ashes, both sets of players will know they are walking on the shoulders of giants.Long before the current generation was able to embrace full professionalism, and compete in front of 20,000-strong crowds on a regular basis, their forebears were raising their own funds for months-long amateur tours – and paying for their own kit along the way, including their England blazers of course.And no women’s cricketer better epitomises that struggle for recognition than the legendary Enid Bakewell. Fifty years ago this month, her century against Australia secured glory for England in the first Cricket World Cup (men’s or women’s); three years after that, in 1976, she made another matchwinning fifty against the Aussies, as England’s women were, finally, permitted to play on that hallowed turf at Lord’s.And Bakewell will be paying close attention to events at Lord’s on Saturday, as Heather Knight’s team continue their battle to stay in Ashes contention. These days, however, it might be best if they avoid walking literally on her shoulders. At the venerable age of 82, even the most indestructible icon of the women’s game is beginning to feel a bit of wear and tear.”I have to bowl underarm these days, because this bowling arm won’t get it all the way down the pitch,” Bakewell tells ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve had both knees replaced, and I should really be having my shoulder done, but apparently it’s too complicated an option, so they’re advising not to have that done. But I still have a whale of a time.”That much was apparent in the winter just gone, when Bakewell embarked on a playing tour of Australia and New Zealand, where she even picked up a Player-of-the-Match award in East Anglian Veteran Ladies’ opening fixture against Queensland Veterans CC.”That was wonderful,” she says. “We didn’t win a game, because of course we were playing men most of the time, and we had some matches rained off as well. But we made some really good friends.”The Aussies of course, were extremely competitive. The New Zealanders were more friendly in a way, just as competitive really. The biggest problem I had all tour was getting myself out of a Jacuzzi that hadn’t got any handles on it!”If that episode proved to be a brief struggle Down Under, it was nothing compared to Bakewell’s first tour of Australia in 1968-69: to this day perhaps the archetypal example of how much women’s cricketers of her pioneering generation were forced to sacrifice, in order to fulfil their dreams of playing for their country.Enid Bakewell admires the portrait at the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Gate at Lord’s•Getty ImagesAt the age of 28, and already a mother of a young daughter, Bakewell reasoned it was now or never, having already missed the chance to debut against New Zealand in 1966 due to her pregnancy. And sure enough, after a century on her Test debut at Adelaide in December 1968, she confirmed her status as the greatest allrounder of her era, as she became the first cricketer to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets on the same tour.But though that tour made her name and helped to raise the profile of the women’s game, it meant leaving her daughter behind in England for four months – in the capable care of her own father, as it happened, an ex-coalminer from Nottinghamshire with an admirably enlightened attitude to childcare. And, as for the fundraising for such a lengthy trip, that involved all manner of optimistic schemes.”I used to sell potatoes outside the front of my house, and I had to go and get more from the greengrocer when I sold out,” Bakewell says. “We sold books, for about 6d each as it was then. And my dad was on the council and he chatted up some of the local landowners, but I don’t think they actually gave me a donation at all.”I suppose I didn’t really realise how hard it was. But quite honestly, I was so competitive. I came from a mining village, and of course, normally, in Newstead, women didn’t go out to work. They stayed home, looked after the children, did the housework … had to get home to get the men’s tea ready…”And so, within that context, the idea of women trying to play cricket was an absurd proposition: “like a man trying to knit”, as the great Len Hutton once put it. Last month, that infamous quote made it into the long-awaited report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Sport, as part of a scathing critique of English cricket’s ingrained sexism.Lord’s in particular came in for a rough ride from the ICEC, with the commission expressing its “alarm” at the “truly appalling” fact that England’s women had never played a Test match at Lord’s.”The ‘home of cricket’ is still a home principally for men,” the report stated, in one of the most damning lines of its 317 pages.And so, depending on your stance in the debate, it’s either auspicious or awkward timing for Lord’s to be hosting this particular Ashes fixture – the first bilateral women’s T20I in the ground’s history and only the second international in the format there after England’s victory in the World T20 final, way back in 2009.Enid Bakewell rang the five-minute bell during the Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge•ECB/Getty ImagesBakewell’s life story, however, is living testimony to the truth that underpins the ICEC’s verdict. Last year, after an at-times interminable debate, MCC finally deigned to erect a tribute to Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Bakewell’s long-time captain and England team-mate. Quite apart from a mighty career in her own right, Heyhoe Flint was the driving force behind the inaugural 1973 World Cup – and had it not been for that event, the men’s event in 1975 surely would not have followed so swiftly afterwards.The final of that event, however, had to be held at Edgbaston, not Lord’s, because MCC would not entertain the notion of hosting women at their venue. It would be another 25 years, in 1998, before the first female members would be permitted to join the club and end almost 200 years of male-only status. Heyhoe Flint was among that initial tranche of new members, but not Bakewell at that stage: “I’d had children, you see, so they got in the way of me playing for England”But eventually, in August 2022, five years after her untimely death on the eve of the 2017 Women’s World Cup, the Heyhoe Flint Gate was unveiled at Lord’s – complete with a plaque and a portrait to commemorate a “Pioneer for Women in Cricket”. Bakewell, sadly, was unable to attend that initial ceremony, but was back at Lord’s in March to see the tribute for herself.”It’s such a wonderful picture of her,” she says. “She used to play the ukulele round here, while handing out leaflets to raise awareness, just to let people know that women did play cricket. We used to go around everywhere, playing against men’s teams. I remember one match where a chap got about 176 against our women’s team, and she came in after she had got out for just a few, and she threw her bat across the room.”I was in the same boat at Trent Bridge, really,” she adds. “It’s taken years for them to put any pictures of women’s cricketers up there, but now they’ve got a bat that I signed and gave to them, and a cap that I brought back all the way from Sri Lanka. If ever someone interviewed me, I knew they wouldn’t know anything about women’s cricket. So I’d just talk and entertain the crowd, and they would laugh their heads off.”Finally, however, the times they are a-changing for the women’s game, and Bakewell could not be more delighted for opportunities that are coming the way of her successors in the game. “It’s amazing, and it’s really wonderful that they are being given so much publicity,” she says.Related

Jenny Gunn's accidental comeback: 'I'm definitely not going to be the next Enid Bakewell!'

Sophie Ecclestone on a Women's Ashes comeback: 'We've seen weirder things happen in cricket'

Danni Wyatt and spinners keep England alive in the Women's Ashes

'We're allowed to lose' – Alyssa Healy not worried by close defeat at The Oval

Nat Sciver-Brunt riding wave of emotion in hard-fought Ashes series

“Anya, she’s my heroine,” she adds, referencing Anya Shrubsole, who happens to be listening in as Bakewell holds court at the top of the Lord’s Pavilion.”She was cool, calm and collected when Jenny Gunn dropped that catch against India,” she adds of the moment, in the fraught final stages of the epic 2017 50-over World Cup final, when Gunn at mid-off let one of the simplest catches of her life go down, with India nine-down and ten runs from claiming the title. Undeterred, Shrubsole turned at the top of her mark, charged in once more, and plucked out Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s off stump to seal the title, and her own immortality, with figures of 6 for 46.Bakewell’s own best figures, incidentally, were 7 for 61 – for match figures of 10 for 75 – in the last of her 12 Tests, against West Indies at Edgbaston in 1979. She’s left such analyses long behind her now, but nothing will ever manage to stifle her competitive spirit.These days, Bakewell’s enthusiasm for local politics takes up most of her time (“I’ll be stuffing my election leaflets into envelopes while watching the cricket,” she says) but she’s also now joined her daughter’s eight-a-side over-50s team. “I managed a catch behind the wicket the other day… and I actually managed to sit at the side and not say anything unless I was asked, which was very difficult …”I go to keep-fit on a Monday, and keep-fit on a Tuesday with an actual physio. Then I do yoga on a Wednesday; on Thursday, I usually catch up with my hair and all sorts of things. On Friday, I’ll go walking with a friend. And then my grandson comes home from school.”That is the measure of the bedrock upon which the modern women’s game is founded. It’s little wonder it feels quite so robust at this moment.

Perhaps he needs to show the selectors he can score runs in the top order

Sidharth Monga28-Jun-2023After India’s selection for the tour of the West Indies, former Test captain Sunil Gavaskar asked a pertinent question: “Sarfaraz Khan has been scoring at an average of 100 in the past three seasons. What does he have to do to be picked in the [Test] squad?”Sarfaraz is indeed averaging 106.07 in first-class cricket since the start of 2020. The selectors are in a no-win situation here. Forget explaining Sarfaraz’s prolonged exclusion, they aren’t even allowed to say whether Mohammed Shami has been rested or is injured. So it’s tricky to tell a player like Sarfaraz that they aren’t considered good enough to play for India despite all the runs they have amassed, but it is something you hope they are doing in a sensitive manner.However, we are not completely in the dark. There is one plausible cricketing reason for Sarfaraz’s non-selection. A pattern you can identify without a selector’s insight: of Sarfaraz’s 3505 first-class runs, 3348 have come at No. 5 or below.Related

Duleep Trophy: Four good men, four great opportunities missed

Gavaskar defends 'loyal servant' Pujara

Jaiswal and Gaikwad in India's Test squad

Since 2006, around when ESPNcricinfo’s Statsguru added filters for batting positions in domestic first-class cricket, India have had 54 Test debutants. Among them, Karun Nair is the only specialist batter with a major chunk of his Ranji Trophy runs before his Test debut at No. 5 or below. Even Nair had moved to No. 4 in the season immediately prior to his India debut.So none of the big performers at No. 5 or below since 2006 has gone on to play Test cricket for India as a specialist batter. Apart from Sarfaraz, that list includes Manish Pandey (average 65) and Ambati Rayudu (average 60). Those who did make it to were Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha and Axar Patel. They are either allrounders or wicketkeepers batting ahead of their usual station to prove their batting prowess for Test selection.Two interesting names in that list might tell you why first-class runs outside the top four are probably given less weightage. Ajay Jadeja and Amol Muzumdar averaged 67 and 53 in the lower-middle order but these stats are only 2005-06 onwards, indicating that they batted there only at the end of their careers. In the Ranji Trophy, a good batter bats in the lower-middle order usually at the start or the end of his career.The common assumption is that if you don’t bat in the top four, you aren’t even among the best batters of your domestic side. You don’t face the new ball and bowlers are usually tired by the time you’re into bat. Ranji teams don’t have the depth that international bowling attacks do to challenge batters. Even if you come in at a precarious 50 for 3 – and Sarfaraz has scored runs from similar situations – the ball is likely about 15 overs old and the weaker bowlers are operating.All the specialist batters with decently long Test careers for India have batted in the top four in domestic cricket. In all, 36 players have scored 2000-plus runs in the top seven for India. Take out the three wicketkeepers and four allrounders, and only one of the remaining 29 spent a considerable amount of time batting outside the top four in domestic first-class cricket. That man was Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, who played a lot of his domestic cricket on the county circuit in England.13:15

Are India’s selectors undervaluing domestic cricket?

The general trend for a young batter in India is to start his first-class career at No. 5 or 6 and then move up the order before the national selectors come calling. A classic case perhaps is Muzumdar, a prolific batter with no Test cap, who spent a fair bit of time outside the top four for Mumbai. Quite often, he couldn’t have done much about it: he had to bat behind Sanjay Manjrekar, Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli.In Sarfaraz’s case, there have been times when he has had to bat behind the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ajinkya Rahane, but it hasn’t always been so. And this year a lot of those players will be away on India duty, so Sarfaraz can have the opportunity.This is not to say that Sarfaraz is not a good batter and won’t do well against the new ball, fresh bowlers and stronger attacks, but perhaps the selectors haven’t seen enough evidence of that yet. It sounds like an extremely ruthless approach to selection, but selection in India is a ruthless job. There is so much batting talent in the country that you have to tick extra boxes to get into the best seven or eight.Now we don’t know whether Sarfaraz has received any feedback from the selectors or the team management, but the answer to Gavaskar’s question is perhaps this. What more does Sarfaraz have to get picked in India’s Test squad? Probably bat higher in Mumbai’s line-up and give the selectors more reasons to select him. Or fewer reasons to ignore him, because the predominant narrative at the moment is that they are denying him a spot rather than giving him constructive feedback on how to earn that India Test cap.

Stats highlights from the second day of the first Test in Dominica, where Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma set new highs with a 229-run stand

Sampath Bandarupalli13-Jul-2023229 The partnership between Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal, the highest opening stand for India in Tests outside Asia. The previous highest was 213 between Chetan Chauhan and Sunil Gavaskar at The Oval in 1979. It is also India’s third highest opening stand away from home.350 Balls faced by Jaiswal by stumps on the second day, the most by an Indian in an innings on Test debut. The previous highest, where balls-faced data is available, was 322 by Mohammad Azharuddin in 1984, during his 110 against England at Eden Gardens.2 Number of players with a higher scores on Test debut for India than Jaiswal’s unbeaten 143. Shikhar Dhawan scored 187 against Australia in 2013 in Mohali, while Rohit made 177 against West Indies at Eden Gardens the same year.3 Indian openers with a century on Test debut, including Jaiswal. Dhawan’s 187 was the first century by an Indian opener on debut, while Prithvi Shaw made 134 against West Indies in 2018.131 Sourav Ganguly’s score against England on debut in 1996 at Lord’s – the highest by an Indian debutant away from home until Jaiswal’s 143*.1 It’s the first instance of India taking the first-innings lead without losing a wicket. The closest they came before this match was in the 1978 Sydney Test, where Gavaskar and Chauhan had a 97-run opening stand after Australia got bowled out for 131.2008 The last time both openers scored hundreds in the same Test innings against West Indies, before Rohit and Jaiswal. Phil Jacques and Simon Katich scored tons in Australia’s second innings in the 2008 Bridgetown Test.1 The partnership between Rohit and Jaiswal is India’s highest for the first wicket in Tests against West Indies, surpassing the 201-run stand between Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar in the 2002 Wankhede Test.