Sri Lanka v India, 3rd Test, Day 1 – Statistical Highlights

Sri Lanka have finally reduced the domination of India in this series as they managed to reduce the visitors to 329/6 on the first day of the final Test at Pallekele after their openers Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul put on 188 nearly at five runs an over. Dhawan scored his second hundred in this series while Rahul registered his 7th fifty in as many innings. Spinners Malinda Pushpakumara and Lakshan Sandakan didn’t allow middle order to settle down after the departure of the openers.

Here we look at all the stats and records created during the day’s play:

1 – India scoring 300 and more on the first day of all the three matches in this series is the first instance in Test cricket where a team scored 300+ on the opening day of all the games of a 3-match series.

3 – Shikhar Dhawan’s three Test centuries in Sri Lanka are the joint-most for any visiting player in Sri Lanka. India’s Virender Sehwag also scored three Test hundreds in Sri Lanka while opening the batting.

5 – Five Test centuries by Shikhar Dhawan outside the home are the 3rd most for an Indian opener in this format. Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag have scored 18 and 9 centuries respectively.

6 – Innings Dhawan needed for scoring his 3rd Test century in Sri Lanka; the 2nd fewest for any player. Sachin Tendulkar and Cheteshwar Pujara scored their third Test 100 in SL in their 5th innings. Brian Lara scored his 3rd hundred in Sri Lanka in his 7th innings.

7 – Number of fifty-plus scores in consecutive innings for KL Rahul in Test cricket; the most by any Indian player. Overall, he is the 6th player to have scored fifty-plus in 7 consecutive Test innings.

29 – Number of Tests as captain for Virat Kohli without an unchanged XI in consecutive games; the most number of matches for an Indian captain before an unchanged XI. Sourav Ganguly fielded an unchanged XI for the first time in his 29th Test as captain.

45 – Shikhar Dhawan’s 45-ball fifty is the 2nd fastest by an Indian in Tests in Sri Lanka. Virender Sehwag scored his fifty in just 44 balls in 2010 at Colombo (PSS).

61.33 – Shikhar Dhawan’s batting average while opening in Asia is 61.33; the highest for any opener in Test cricket in the Asian continent. (Min: 1000 runs) Dhawan has scored 1104 runs in 19 innings with 5 centuries.

188 – Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul’s 188-run partnership is the highest opening stand for a visiting pair in Sri Lanka in Test cricket. The previous highest opening stand for a visiting pair in Sri Lanka was 171 by NS Sidhu and Manoj Prabhakar way back in 1993 at Colombo (SSC).

2004 – Lakshan Sandakan and Kuldeep Yadav playing this game is the first instance of both the sides in a Test match playing a chinaman bowler since 2005. South Africa’s Paul Adams and Windies’ Dave Mohammed played in the 2004 Cape Town Test.

2011 – Last time before Shikhar Dhawan in this series, an Indian opener scored multiple centuries in a Test series outside the home was Rahul Dravid in 2011 in England.