Stats: Players to complete centuries and double centuries on their birthday in International cricket

David Warner walked out to bat at home in an international game for the first time in 20 months when Australia took on Sri Lanka in the 1st T20I at the Adelaide Oval. Warner made the occasion a memorable one by reaching century on the last ball of the Australian innings. He finished unbeaten on 100 off 56 balls which was his maiden century in the T20I format. An even more special fact about this knock was Warner celebrated his 33rd birthday on the same day.

Thus, Warner became the first player to score a century in a T20I game on his birthday. The previous highest individual score in the T20I format recorded by a player on his birthday was only 60. Yuvraj Singh scored an unbeaten 60 on his 28th birthday against Sri Lanka in 2009 that too at his home ground in Mohali. Warner thus became only the 14th player in the history of international cricket to complete century on a birthday [All instances recorded in Men’s cricket only].

Nine players in Test cricket and four players in ODIs completed a hundred on their birthday before Warner. Alongside these 14, two players went on to complete their double centuries in Test cricket having crossed 100-run mark a day before.

Patsy Hendren achieved this feat in 1930 when he scored an unbeaten 205 against the West Indies on his 41st birthday. Jason Gillespie compiled an unbeaten 201 in the 2006 Test against Bangladesh which turned out to be his penultimate day in International cricket.

Kusal Mendis fell four runs short of this list as he got out on 196 against Bangladesh in the 2018 Chattogram Test. He scored 113 runs on the 3rd day’s play which was his 23rd birthday. The most famous effort in this list remains Sachin Tendulkar’s 134 on his 25th birthday. Tendulkar’s knock came in the 1998 Sharjah Tri-series final against the mighty Australian team. Sachin was then only the 2nd player with an ODI ton on birthday with the first being his childhood friend Vinod Kambli.

Completing centuries and double centuries on birthdays in International cricket:

(Stats as on October 29, 2019)