Top 5 Youngest Indian Batsmen To Hit ODI Century

Indian cricket team have seen a lot of young talents who have left an early mark on cricket. Some of these cricketers went all the way to endure a long career against all the odds while others faded away with time. This is a testament of early success does not always means a fruitful or glorious end.

Let us have a look at top five Indian cricketers who were among the youngest to hit ODI century.

5. Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina scored his first ODI century at the age of 21 years and 211 days. Over the years, Suresh Raina has been an integral part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise in the IPL. But he has been far from contention to play for the Indian cricket team. Suresh Raina made his last international appearance in 2018 during India’s tour of England and since then has been out-of-favour of the side.

Raina batted at No.3 Or the fourth spot in his career which now belongs to Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer in the recent scheme of things as far as the limited-overs is concerned. In fact, in the last IPL season Raina did not look up to the mark though he makes it to the core group of CSK players.

Raina has begun his training for IPL 2020 as CSK will reportedly be one the first team to depart for the lucrative tournament.

Raina averages 25 in Tests, 35 in ODIs and nearly 30 in the shortest format of the game.

4. Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar might be the youngest men’s cricket to make his international debut but he was not the youngest to score an ODI century. He notched it up at the age of 21 years and 138 days against Australia in Colombo in 1994. Sachin Tendulkar loved the game and worked rigorously to earn the distinction of ‘God of cricket’. His was not a regular Mumbaikar story. It was a story of grit, passion, unbelievable skills to make things work

Sachin Tendulkar was short but he would bully the ‘tallest’ bowlers of the era. It was the Sachin Tendulkar-era. He was a nightmare many bowlers would often refer as difficult to dislodge. At his numbers justify his status. The 47-year-old continues to be the leading run-scorer in in international cricket with 34, 357 runs — 15,921 in Tests, 18426 in ODIs and 10 from a solitary T20I.

3. Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh was one of the greatest match-winners and all-rounder that the national team produced. He notched up his first ODI century at the age of 21 years and 120 days against Bangladesh in Dhaka, back in 2003. Yuvraj Singh, out of favour from the national team, had decided to call time on his glittering career on June 10, 2019.

Yuvraj Singh was instrumental for India in the 2007 T20 World Cup and who can forget his all-round role in 2011 World Cup for which he was named the man-of-the-series. He was once the poster boy of  Indian cricket team and brought down the curtains on his career spanning nearly 19 years and 400 matches.

2. Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has made record breaking look easy. He notched up his first ODI century at the age of 21 years and 49 days, which made him the second youngest Indian to achieve the feat. This came against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2009. Kohli is a determined spirit who made his way to become one of the finest cricketers of all-time through sheer self belief and hard-work. He has made run-scoring look easy and has many records to be broken in line.

Kohli has often showed his love for the sport through his aggression and hardly gives an inch to his opponents on the field. But off it, Kohli is a completely different personality, he likes to spend time with his family, read books, train consistently and maintain his vegan diet, and to top it all he is not fond of fame or attention.

1. Vinod Kambli

Vinod Kambli was the youngest Indian batsman to score an ODI century. He notched it up at the age of 21 against England in Jaipur, back in 1993. When Vinod Kambli busted to the international setup he was touted to be the next big star. Vinod Kambli captivated the audience in the initial few years of his career and thus earned a lot of fans for the same.