IND vs SL 2021: Ishan Kishan joins Sachin Tendulkar and 3 other Indian legends in exclusive club

With his 42-ball 59 in the 1st ODI against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on July 18, Ishan Kishan joined Sachin Tendulkar and three other Indian cricket legends in an exclusive club.

The young southpaw, who turned 23 today, became the fifth batsman to score an ODI fifty on his birthday. Before Kishan, Vinod Kambli, Navjot Sidhu, Tendulkar and Yusuf Pathan achieved the feat.

Indians scoring a fifty on their birthday (in men's ODIs):Vinod Kambli (21st)Navjot Sidhu (31st)Sachin Tendulkar (25th)Yusuf Pathan (26th)Ishan Kishan (23rd)Kishan is the only one to do so on his ODI debut.#SLvIND #SLvsIND #INDvsSL

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) July 18, 2021

Ishan Kishan broke several other records during his aggressive innings. He tallied the second-fastest fifty (33 balls) by an ODI debutant. Interestingly, all-rounder Krunal Pandya set the record (26 balls) against England earlier this year.

Ishan Kishan is no stranger to maximizing his debut in a format, having smashed a fifty against England on his T20I debut too. He became the second Indian player to score a fifty in his first innings in each of the ODI and T20I formats, after Robin Uthappa.

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India in command thanks to Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan

Ishan Kishan🇮🇳 is the first ever player to make ODI debut on his birthday and score 50+ runs.Prev highest - 29 by Grant Paterson🇿🇼 v AUS, 1983#SLvIND

— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) July 18, 2021

After Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and opted to bat, Avishka Fernando got his team off to a decent start in the powerplay. But the hosts couldn't string together meaningful partnerships and needed some late heroics from Chamika Karunaratne to take them to 262/9.

Prithvi Shaw, playing his fourth ODI, picked apart the Sri Lankan bowling in the first half of the powerplay. He peppered the off-side boundary, scoring 43 runs off just 24 balls and putting India way ahead of the eight-ball early in the run-chase. Ishan Kishan continued from where Shaw left off before being dismissed for 59.

At the time of writing, India are placed at 163/2 after 22 overs, with Shikhar Dhawan batting on 39 and Manish Pandey on 8. The required run rate is only 3.57, and the Men in Blue are in prime position to coast to an easy win in the series opener.