5 Indian players who have scored exactly one Test century

The Indian cricket team attained Test status in the year 1932 and have played 529 Test matches since then. Indian team played its first Test match against England at Lord’s London in 1932.

Till date, a total of 294 players have represented the Indian side in the Test matches with Shardul Thakur being the latest addition to the list. CK Nayudu was the first Indian Test team captain, while Lala Amarnath was the first Indian batsman ever to score a century for in Test cricket.

Since then, 82 players have joined the elite list of players who have scored a Test century for India. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record of scoring most centuries by a player in Test cricket. More than fifty players have scored more than one Test century. Virender Sehwag was the first Indian to score a triple hundred in Test cricket and one of the few players who has scored more than one triple hundred.

Here we look at 5 Indian cricketers who played Test cricket and have scored exactly one century:

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#5 Mohammad Kaif

Mohammad Kaif was the captain of the India national under-19 cricket team which won Under-19 World Cup in the year 2000. He was regarded as one of the best fielders in the Indian cricket team during his stint with the national side.

Kaif made his Test debut in 2000 against South Africa when he was just 20 and went on to play 13 tests in his test career which spanned for 6 years. He scored 624 runs at an average of 32.84 in his Test career.

He was not a regular member of the squad and he was mainly used as a rotational player in the Test side. He played in the middle order between number 5 to 7. Kaif scored his first Test century in the last series he played in the Indian national side, an unbeaten 148* against West Indies in June 2006. He batted at number 6 in that innings and added 179 runs with Rahul Dravid for the fifth wicket.

Despite his good contribution he was dropped from the side in 2006 and hasn’t represented India since then. He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on July 13, 2018.

#4 Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar was a well known Indian bowler and played more than 200 matches for India in all formats of the game. He made his International debut at the age of 20 when he played his first Test vs Zimbabwe. He was the 216th player to represent India in Tests, and went on to play 26 Tests and 191 ODIs for India. His test career was not that impressive as compared to his ODI career.

Agarkar's Test century came at the iconic Lord’s stadium, where he scored an unbeaten 109 in 190 balls and added 126 runs with VVS Laxman in the chase of 568, although India lost the match by 170 runs. In fact, this was his only 50+ score in his Test career.

His last Test was against Pakistan in January 2006 and he ended his Test career with 58 wickets with best bowling figures of 6/41 at the famous Adelaide Test during the 2003-04 tour of Australia.

#3 Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan was regarded as the perfect heir to Zaheer Khan in the Indian side. He made his test debut against Australia in the tour of 2003-04 when he was 19 and represented India in all the three formats of the game.

Pathan has played 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 29 T20s for India, and has scalped exactly 100 wickets in Test matches with best bowling figures of 7 for 59. He picked a hat-trick in the first over of the Test match vs Pakistan in which he bowled Salman Butt and got better of Younis Khan and Mohammad Younis in the next two balls.

The left-arm bowler was decent with the bat too, and scored 1105 runs with six fifties and a century. His hundred came against Pakistan when they toured India in 2007. He scored 102 of 133 balls and added 178 runs with Saurav Ganguly who scored 239 which was his highest score in Tests.

Pathan played his last Test vs South Africa in 2008 and played his last international game for India in 2012. He is now playing for Jammu & Kashmir in Ranji Trophy as a coach cum player.

#2 Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik is one of the few players who was unlucky to be born in the MS Dhoni era. Karthik debuted for India against Australia at Wankhede Stadium Mumbai, when he was 19 years old.

Since then he has played 26 Tests for India in 14 years. He mostly batted at number 6 and 7 in his early years. But during the tour of South Africa in 2006 he first played as an opener and scored fifty in his debut innings at the top.

Since Dhoni took the role of keeping wickets, Karthik has mainly played as a batsman in most of his Tests and had donned the gloves in the matches when Dhoni didn't feature. He scored his first Test hundred in a match against Bangladesh post 2007 World Cup. Incidentally, in that match, the top four of the Indian side scored a hundred as India posted a huge score of 610 for the loss of just 3 wickets. He was the leading run scorer of the Indian side when they toured England in 2007.

He eventually lost his place when Sehwag returned to the squad and has not played at the top since then. Karthik was dropped from the Test squad after the tour of Bangladesh in 2010 and played the first two Tests in the tour of England in this year before losing his spot to the young sensation Rishabh Pant.

#1 Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble was the most successful Indian bowler in Test match history with 619 wickets. His 18-year Test career began in 1990 when he was 19 years old at Old Trafford against England.

He played 132 Tests and also became the 2nd cricketer after Jim Laker to pick all the 10 wickets of the opposition team in a Test match innings. Kumble achieved that feat in a match against the arch-rivals Pakistan at Delhi in 1999. He scored 2506 runs in Test career with five fifties and one hundred.

His only Test hundred came against England at Oval, London. He scored an unbeaten 110 and shared three fifty run partnerships with MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, and Sreesanth during that knock.

He retired from international cricket after the home series win against Australia in 2008. He later coached the Indian national side for a year from June 2016 and stepped down after his fall out with captain Kohli, soon after India's loss in the Champions Trophy final in June 2017.