Shubman Gill back in spotlight as Tom Latham and Devon Conway create history in New Zealand vs West Indies 3rd Test

Indian Test captain Shubman Gill is back in the spotlight as Tom Latham and Devon Conway have created history in the New Zealand vs West Indies 3rd Test. They have become the first opening pair in first-class cricket to score centuries in both innings of the same match.

This achievement is extremely rare in Test cricket. It is only the fourth time any batting pair from the same team has scored hundreds in both innings.

The previous instance happened in 2024 when Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis did it against Bangladesh. Before them, Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq did it in 2014. Ian and Greg Chappell did it in 1974.

Before this, New Zealand achieved two century opening stands in a Test only once before Conway and Latham. Interestingly, it involved Rod Latham, Tom Latham’s father. In 1992, Rod partnered with Mark Greatbatch for two century stands against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

In this match, New Zealand scored 881 runs in total, their highest ever in a Test match. It surpassed the 874 they made against India in Auckland in 1990.

New Zealand’s opening pair created several historic milestones in this Test match. The combined first-wicket partnerships of both teams added 669 runs, the highest ever in Test history.

It surpassed the previous record of 577 set in Chennai in 1956. Of these, New Zealand openers contributed 515 runs while the West Indies pair added 154.

Latham and Conway also became the first pair to record both a triple-century stand and a century stand in the same Test. Only three other pairs have ever managed partnerships of 250-plus and 100-plus in one Test.

Earlier, in the second Test, Latham and Conway added a combined 515 runs as an opening pair. It is the highest ever for openers in a Test match. It broke the previous record of 415 by Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith against Bangladesh in 2008.

Shubman Gill delivered one of the greatest individual performances in Test cricket this year. During the Edgbaston match against England from July 2 to 6, the Indian captain struck 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second.

Together, both innings gave him a match total of 430 runs. This is the second-highest in Test history. Only Graham Gooch has more, 456 runs.

Gill became the first player ever to score a double hundred and a 150-plus knock in the same Test. He became only the second Indian, after Sunil Gavaskar, to hit a double-hundred and a hundred in one match.

He became the first Asian captain to score a double-hundred in England. His runs powered India to a huge 336-run victory. It was India’s first Test win at Edgbaston.

They also became only the third and fourth New Zealand players to score hundreds in both innings of a Test. Before them, only Glenn Turner (1974) and Peter Fulton (2013) achieved this.