Ashraful is youngest Test centurion
Mohandas Menon
The long-standing, 1961 record of Pakistan's Mushtaq Mohammad -- of being the youngest batsman to score a Test hundred at 17 years and 81 days -- was bettered by Bangladeshi all-rounder Mohammad Ashraful while scoring a hundred in the second innings on his Test debut, against Sri Lanka on the third day of the Asian Test Championship at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground at Colombo on Saturday.
Ashraful (born: July 7, 1984), who is just 17 years and 63 days, scored 114 as Bangladesh lost to Sri Lanka by an innings and 137 runs.
Incidentally, Ashraful is also the youngest to achieve this feat on debut, obliterating the previous record of 17 years and 353 days by Zimbabwean Hamilton Masakadza against the West Indies in July this year.
Incidentally, the previous youngest batsman to score a Test hundred against Sri Lanka was Pakistani Salim Malik, who was 18 years and 327 days, at Karachi in March 1982.
The youngest Test centurions are listed below:
17 yrs / 63 days - Mohd. Ashraful (114) for Ban v SL at Colombo (SSC), September 2001
17 yrs / 81 days - Mushtaq Mohd. (101) for Pak v Ind at Delhi, February 1961
17 yrs / 111 days - Sachin Tendulkar (119*) for Ind v Eng at Manchester, August 1990
17 yrs / 353 days - Hamilton Masakadza (119) for Zim v WI at Harare, July 2001
