First impressions and the lasting impact

GR Vishwanath, the wonderfully wristy stylist from Bengaluru, wasn’t the first Indian batter to make a century on Test debut. Nor was the second. Or even the third.

But he was the first Indian debutant centurion to score a second Test ton. And then a third, and a fourth, ending up with 14 hundreds when he played the last of his 91 Tests in February 1983. Remarkably, ‘Vishy’ never announced his retirement from the five-day game; dropped after a forgettable tour of Pakistan, he played First Class cricket for five more seasons before riding away into the sunset.