Shikhar Dhawan might have scored the fastest-ever Test century on debut today but the former cricket captains of the world believe it has nothing to do with the advent of Twenty20 cricket.
Dhawan created history today by scoring the fastest-ever Test ton on debut in the third Test against Australia and was unbeaten on a 168-ball 185 at the end of the third day's play.
He scored his hundred in only 85 balls, surpassing West Indian Dwayne Smith's debut Test ton hit in 93 balls against South Africa back in 2004. England's Matt Prior hit a century on debut against West Indies off 105 balls.
"When I saw the list of the Indian players who had got fastest hundreds, I found Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Virender Sehwag in the list, so all these scores happened before Twenty20 cricket had started," said former India captain Rahul Dravid.
"It is not that players weren't playing positively before the coming of T20 cricket but it is just that more and more players are playing like that (fast) these days. That is what is changing. Some of the positions Dhawan got into to play his shots need good technique," he added.
Another ex-India skipper, Sourav Ganguly agreed with his former teammate, saying, "Lots of players have scored hundreds on debut but what stood out for me is the way he batted, and that has nothing to do with Twenty20 cricket.
"Dhawan has the ability and the technique, which will help him adapt to all forms of cricket."
Former West Indies captain Brian Lara also denied that Dhawan's experience of T20 cricket is the reason for his fastest ton today but said that scoring at such a pace was not possible 20-30 years back.
"There might be some relation to the fact that Dhawan has played T20 cricket because 20-30 years ago, no one would have dreamt about such a thing," said Lara.
