Mirpur: The budding left-arm opener etched his name in the history of Test cricket by scoring a century on debut in the series opener against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.
Azan, who resumed his first Test innings from an unbeaten 85 on the third day of the aforementioned tournament, raised the milestone by driving a full delivery from Nahid Rana towards the off side for a single in the 51st over of Pakistan’s innings.
The result made the 21-year-old the 14th Pakistani player to score a century on Test debut, joining the likes of Javed Miandad, Younis Khan and Fawad Alam.
Khalid Ibadullah is the first to reach the elusive list in the longest format, while Yasir Hameed holds the distinction of scoring a century in every innings of his Test debut.
Azan is also the third Pakistani player to score a century on Test debut abroad, joining Umar Akmal and Alam, who brought up their first centuries in Dunedin and Colombo respectively in 2009.
List of Pakistani players who have scored centuries in Test debut:
- Khalid Ibadullah – 166 against Australia in 1964
- Javed Miandad – 163 against New Zealand in 1976
- Salim Malik – 100* against Sri Lanka in 1982
- Mohammad Wasim – 109* against New Zealand in 1996
- Ali Naqvi – 115 against South Africa in 1997
- Azhar Mahmood – 128* against South Africa in 1997
- Younis Khan – 107 against Sri Lanka in 2000
- Taufeeq Umar – 104 against Bangladesh in 2001
- Yasir Hamid – 170, 105 against Bangladesh in 2003
- Fawad Alam – 168 against Sri Lanka in 2009
- Umar Akmal – Scored 129 against New Zealand in 2009
- Abid Ali – 109* against Sri Lanka in 2019
- Kamran Ghulam – 114 against England in 2024
- Azan Awais – 103 vs Bangladesh in 2026
However, the left-arm batsman, experienced Bangladesh fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, fell victim after hitting a 22-ball triple and bounced back after scoring 103 off 165 balls with 14 boundaries.