Pakistan opener Azan Awais made a memorable entry into Test cricket by scoring a century on debut on Sunday in the first match of the away series against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Starting the third day unbeaten on 85, the left-handed batter reached his maiden Test hundred in the 51st over of Pakistan’s innings by taking a single off Nahid Rana.
With this achievement, the 21-year-old became only the 14th Pakistani player to register a century on Test debut, joining elite names such as Javed Miandad, Younis Khan, and Fawad Alam.
The first Pakistani to reach this milestone in Test cricket was Khalid Ibadulla in 1964, while Yasir Hameed holds a unique record of scoring centuries in both innings of his debut Test match.
Azan Awais also became only the third Pakistani batter to score a Test debut century in an away match, following Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam, who achieved the feat in Dunedin and Colombo in 2009 respectively.
Other Pakistan players who have scored centuries on Test debut include Saleem Malik, Mohammad Wasim, Ali Naqvi, Azhar Mahmood, Taufeeq Umar, Abid Ali, and Kamran Ghulam, among others.
After reaching the landmark, Azan could not extend his innings for long, as he was dismissed 22 balls later by experienced Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed. He departed for 103 runs off 165 deliveries, an innings decorated with 14 boundaries.
Despite the dismissal shortly after his milestone, Azan Awais’s debut century stood out as a significant achievement, marking him as one of the promising young talents in Pakistan’s Test cricket setup.
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