First Day First Show Does Not Define Career, Usually!

Debutants Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal may have not shattered records but had a decent outing with the willow in their first stint at opening the batting for India in ODIs.

Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal

New Delhi: In a first of sorts, Indian cricket team got two debutants in the same match in Hamilton when Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal came out to open the innings for the 'Men in Blue' after the Kiwis skipper Tom Latham put the visitors into bat in the first ODI played at the scenic Seddon Park.

Both Prithvi and Mayank had a decent outing with the willow in their first outing wearing the Blue Jersey for the national team. While the upcoming star batsman from Mumbai scored 20, the seasoned opening batsman from Karnataka scored 32 off 31 deliveries .

The young guns couldn't totally break the age old and long standing norm which had witnessed even the greatest exponents of batting failing  to impress on their first outing in the 50-over format but still managed to turn some heads with decent contributions up the order.

Here is a look-back  at the debut innings of some of the greatest batsmen that ever played for the Indian cricket team 

Sachin Tendulkar

-----------------------------

Sachin Tendulkar made his ODI debut in December 1989 against Pakistan in Gujranwala . In a rain curtailed match Pakistan batted first and scored 87/9 in 16 overs . Krish Srikkanth and Raman Lamba came out to open the innings for India and scored 17 and 10 respectively . But both of them consumed a lot of deliveries. Mohd. Azharuddin played a cameo of 21 but Sachin Tendulkar failed completely . He was out for a zero and was caught by Wasim Akram after playing just a couple of deliveries. Waqar Younis took his wicket .

Sourav Ganguly 

-----------------------------

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly finished his career with the tag of one of the most successful batsmen in the  limited overs format . but his ODI debut too was a failure. 'Dada' made his debut against West Indies in Brisbane in 1992 when India were playing a tri nation series . Sourav batted for 33 minutes , faced 13 deliveries before getting out LBW for just 3 runs. Cummins took his wicket. India were bundled out for just 191 runs in that match and West Indies chased the target with six wickets in hand .

Rahul Dravid 

-------------------------

Dravid made his ODI debut in an unusual venue when India went to play Singer Cup in Singapore in 1996. The stylish middle order batsman played his first limited overs match against Sri Lanka and could just score 3 runs before getting out to a delivery from the legendary spinner Muthiah Muralitharan. Dravid's innings was over after he faced just 4 deliveries . India scored 199 after batting first with Navjot Singh Sidhu top scored with 94 runs . Sri Lanka couldn't chase well too and lost the match by 12 runs . Javagal Srinath took 4 wickets for 35 runs as India managed a narrow victory .

MS Dhoni

-----------------------

MS Dhoni made his debut as a wicket keeper batsman for Team India under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly . His first innings could last for just a delivery and 'Mahi' was run out for a duck. Mohd. Kaif who scored 80 runs and Rahul Dravid with 53 took India's total to a modest 245/8 in 50 overs . Despite scoring not too big , India managed to win by 11 runs as the bowlers delivered .

Virat Kohli

----------------------

It was India's tour of Sri Lanka in 2008 when Virat Kohli made his ODI debut in Dambulla . India batted first and all the big guns failed badly . Yuvraj Singh top scored with just 23 runs . Virat couldn't manage more than 12 off 22 deliveries .  India were all out for 146 runs . Sri Lanka knocked it off with 8 wickets in hand .