Jimmy Neesham: First New Zealand batsman to score two centuries in as many Tests

Neesham first to score two tons in as many Tests

New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who scored a century in his debut Test versus India, has scored another century in his second Test this time against the West Indies. He has joined the elite club of players scoring a century in each of their first two Test matches. Bharath Seervi lists out the players who achieved this feat before Neesham.

Jimmy Neesham has done something which no other New Zealand player has done that before. First he scored match saving 137 not out against India at Wellington in February 2014 on his debut and then in his second Test in the Caribbean, he scored 107 in the first innings. This made him the first player from New Zealand to achieve this unique feat in Test cricket.

Before Neesham, seven other players scored a century in each of their first two Tests of their career. The first to achieve this was Bill Ponsford for Australia in 1924-1925 and the last to do this was Rohit Sharma from India in 2013. Below is the complete list.

Players scoring a century in each of their first two Test matches:

Note:

Other than Neesham, all the previous seven batsmen had scored a century in their debut Test innings.

Neesham is the only player to achieve the feat against two different teams.

Mohammad Azharuddin had scored a century in his third Test as well, making him the only player so far to score centuries in each of the first three Tests.

Apart from the above eight cricketers there are four more cricketers who had scored two centuries in their first two Test matches, but in a different fashion. Two players scored two centuries in their debut Test match and other two players scored two centuries in their second Test. Below is the table listing them:

(Bharath Seervi is cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)