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Rishabh Pant gets into record books on Test debut

August 19, 2018 12:54 IST

Rishabh Pant became the first Indian to hit a six as the first scoring shot of his Test career, notes Rajneesh Gupta.

Rishabh Pant

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant. Photograph: BCCI Domestic/Twitter

Rishabh Pant -- all of 20 -- made his Test debut against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Saturday, August 18, 2018.

Pant has the reputation of being a prolific hitter of sixes in domestic cricket and the youngster was not overawed by the big occasion.

After playing his first ball defensively to cover, the left-hander dispatched leg-spinner Adil Rashid for a straight six.

In doing so, he became the first Indian -- and only the 12th player on record -- to hit a six as the first scoring shot of his Test career.

The accompanying tables list all known instances. It must be noted that the instances shown are the ones which are confirmed.

The complete details of some Tests are not available and any missing information is most welcome.

Players' first scoring shot, a six on Test debut (first time they batted)

Batsman	Bowler	Teams	Venue	Season
Eric Freeman	Erapalli Prasanna	Aus v Ind	Brisbane	1967-1968
Carlisle Best	Ian Botham	WI v Eng	Kingston	1985-1986
Keith Dabengwa	Daniel Vettori	Zim v NZ	Bulawayo	2005
Dale Richards	Mashrafe Mortaza	WI v Ban	Kingston	2009
Shafiul Islam	Amit Mishra	Ban v Ind	Chittagong	2009-2010
Mark Craig	Sulieman Benn	NZ v WI	Kingston	2014
Dhananjaya de Silva	Steven O'Keefe	SL v Aus	Pallekele	2016
Rishabh Pant	Adil Rashid	Ind v Eng	Nottingham	2018

The following players hit a six as their first scoring shot in the second innings of their debut Test having batted in the first and not scoring any run:

Batsman	Bowler	Teams	Venue	Season
Jahurul Islam	Graeme Swann	Ban v Eng	Mirpur	2009-2010
Sunil Ambris	Trent Boult	WI v NZ	Wellington	2017-2018

The following players hit a six as their first scoring shot in their second Test having batted earlier and not scoring any run:

Batsman	Bowler	Teams	Venue	Season
Al-Amin Hossain	Rangana Herath	Ban v SL	Mirpur	2013-2014
Kamrul Islam	Moeen Ali	Ban v Eng	Dhaka	2016-2017

Craig is the only one to hit a six off the very first ball he faced in Tests.
Freeman and Pant did so off their second ball in Test cricket.
Shaiful's first scoring shot in both innings on Test debut was a six.
Kamrul Islam made three consecutive ducks before achieving this feat.
Ambris had been dismissed hit-wicket off the very first ball in the first innings on Test debut.

Rajneesh Gupta