Pakistan opener Abid Ali became the country’s first cricketer to score tons in his first two Test matches. The right-handed batsman achieved the feat against Sri Lanka on Saturday in the ongoing second Test of the two-match series in Karachi.
Abid was unbeaten on 158 with the help of 18 boundaries and a six at the time the news was written. Notably, the opener had played a superb knock of 109 not out in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Rawalpindi that fetched him the Player of the Match award.
The century at Rawalpindi also saw Abid become the first-ever batsman in the history of cricket to score a century in his ODI and Test debut. He scored 112 runs in his first ODI against Australia in Dubai in March this year.
Before Abid, eight batsmen have already achieved the feat of scoring centuries in their opening two Test matches.
William Ponsfordm (Australia), Doug Walters (Australia), Greg Blewett (Australia), Sourav Ganguly (India), Rohit Sharma (India), Alvin Kallicharran (West Indies), Jimmy Neesham (New Zealand) are the others with India’s Mohammad Azharuddin, who is the only batsman to score tons in his first three Test matches.