5 batsmen who have scored 3 consecutive centuries twice in their career

Australian batsman David Warner must be over the moon at the moment as he racked up 3 consecutive hundreds against New Zealand in the ongoing Trans-Tasman Test series.This included a highest score of 253 which he got in his last completed innings at the WACA Test. Warner’s feat has landed him into an elite list of Test batsmen who have scored centuries in 3 consecutive innings at least twice in their career.Others include two Sri Lankans, a West Indian and a solitary Indian batsman, all of them legends in their own right. Here we take a look at all 5 members of this exclusive club:

#5 Sunil Gavaskar (India)

Sunil Gavaskar is the lone Indian to have achieved this rare feat

The word ‘record’ seems to be synonymous with India’s legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar. You will rarely find a list of Test batting records that does not include his name and he makes it to this one too. Everyone is aware of Gavaskar’s love affair with the West Indies, so it is very obvious that he achieved the feat of 3 consecutive hundreds against them for the first time.

It happened during India’s historic triumph over West Indies in the 1971 Test series between the two teams. The Little Master scored two centuries in the 4^th Test at Barbados and another one in the 1^st innings of the final Test played at Port of Spain. The second instance came in the year 1978 when he scored back-to-back tons against arch rivals Pakistan in the last match of a 3-Test series that India lost. In the 1^st Test of the following home series against the West Indies, Gavaskar became the only Indian player and the then second in the world to get this distinction.

One notable fact is that in both insatnces, the third one was a double century for the Indian champion.

#4 Everton Weekes (West Indies)

Everton Weekes is the only player in history to score 5 consecutive tons

One of the greatest batsmen to have ever set foot on a cricket field, Everton Weekes was a part of the legendary combination of West Indies batsmen known as the three Ws, the other two being Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott. Apart from being the only batsman in cricket history to have scored 5 centuries in consecutive innings, he is also one among the 5 batsmen who have achieved the feat of getting 3 or more back-to-back hundreds twice or more.

Weekes was the first man to get to this milestone and remained the only one to do it until he was joined by Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar more than 20 years later. The first time he did it was in the year 1948 when he scored a century against England and followed it up with 4 more against India. Eight years later in a series against New Zealand, the master batsman put up another array of consecutive centuries, exactly 3 this time.

#3 Aravinda de Silva (Sri Lanka)

Aravinda de Silva was one of Sri Lanka’s most prolific batsmen

The late 90s was not only one of the best phases for Sri Lankan cricket, but also a very profitable one for their best batsean during that time, one of them being Aravinda de Silva. The year 1997 was particularly memorable for the ace batsman from the Emerald Isle as he went on to achieve the feat of scoring 3 consecutive Test centuries twice in the same year. Both instances were recorded against their sub-continent rivals, Pakistan and India; another incredible fact is that all 6 hundreds came in the Sri Lanka’s capital city of Colombo.

The first time De Silva achieved this feat was in a 2-match Test series against Pakistan where he scored centuries in all three completed innings for Sri Lanka. When India toured his country later that year, the classy batsman was at it again as he notched up another trio of centuries in both the drawn Tests between the two teams. This achievement makes him one of two Sri Lankan players in this exclusive list of 5 players.

#2 David Warner (Australia)

David Warner is the latest entrant to the club

David Warner’s aggressive mode of batting may mislead many into thinking that he cannot score runs consistently. But all these doubts will be cleared when they are encountered with the fact that he is one among only 5 batsmen of all time who have scored 3 consecutive hundreds twice or more in their career; even Bradman or Tendulkar don’t make it to this list.

It all started in 2014 when Warner hit back-to-back tons against South Africa in Cape Town during the final Test of the 3-match series between the Aussies and the Proteas. In the same year, Australia travelled to the UAE for a Test series against Pakistan and David Warner smashed a ton in the 1^st Test at Dubai completing an incredible feat of 3 consecutive Test hundreds.

History has repeated itself for the diminutive southpaw in the ongoing Test series between Australia and New Zealand as he has scored hundreds, including a double century, in all the 3 innings that Australia have had so far in the series. And considering the form that Warner is in, we may even see him add to that number.

#1 Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

Sanga is the only player to have hit 3 consecutive centuries thrice in a career

The genius from Sri Lanka has been one of the most prolific batsmen that world cricket has ever seen. He holds almost all the Test batting records for his country and is also in the top 5 of most lists of batting records in world cricket too. But among all of these, there is one striking record that many may tend to forget in a hurry. Kumar Sangakkara is the only player ever to have scored 3 consecutive centuries a record 3 times in his legendary career.

Sanga managed to achieve this unique distinction in a space of just 5 years between 2009 and 2014. The first instance happened when the Sri Lankan powerhouse scored a century in the final Test on their 2009 tour to India and followed it up with two more in back-to-back innings when his home team played hosts to the Indians in July 2010, one of them being a double. Three years later, Sangakkara did it once again, this time in a two-match home series against Bangladesh where he got a hundred in each innings in the 1^st Test and another one in the 1^st innings of the 2^nd Test.

In the following year, Sangakkara stamped his name right into the record books by completing the feat once again. It started with his mammoth innings of 319 against Bangladesh in Chittagong, a match in which he also scored a century in the 2^nd innings. The third one aptly came at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ in the 1^st Test of Sri Lanka’s tour to England as the mighty Sri Lankan scored 147.