Batter Shreyas Iyer on Friday became only the 16th Indian cricketer to hit a century on his Test debut. Iyer achieved the feat during the second day of the ongoing Test between India and New Zealand at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. With his knock during India’s first innings, Iyer joined Lala Amarnath, Deepak Shodhan, AG Kripal Singh, Abbas Ali Baig, Hanumant Singh, Gundappa Vishwanath, Surender Amarnath, Mohammad Azharuddin, Pravin Amre, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Prithvi Shaw as the Indian players with a century on Test debut.

He is also the second Indian cricketer — the first being Vishwanath — to have reached the milestone at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.

After his knock during India’s first innings in Kanpur, several former and current India players took to social media and lauded Iyer for playing a brilliant knock.

Here are some of the reactions:

“Great start to your Test career, @ShreyasIyer15. Nice to see you as a part of #TeamIndia in ‘whites’. Good luck!” legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar captioned an image of Iyer on Twitter.

Great start to your Test career, @ShreyasIyer15.

Nice to see you as a part of #TeamIndia in ‘whites’.
Good luck! #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/O1ZNlnotLA

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) November 26, 2021

India’s regular Test captain Virat Kohli, who had opted out of the first Test to manage his workload, also took to Instagram and lauded Iyer for the same.

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“Well played and congratulations @shreyas41 for the century on your debut,” Kohli wrote on his Instagram story.

“Good start to the test career @ShreyasIyer15,” Rohit Sharma, who last week guided India to a 3-0 win over the Kiwis in the T20I series, also tweeted.

Good start to the test career @ShreyasIyer15

— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) November 25, 2021

“A magnificent innings under pressure from #ShreyasIyer. Showed great maturity, composure and class and becomes the 16th Indian to Score Century on Test Debut.  Well Played @ShreyasIyer15. Many more to come!” former India batter VVS Laxman tweeted.

A magnificent innings under pressure from #ShreyasIyer . Showed great maturity, composure and class and becomes the 16th Indian to Score Century on Test Debut. Well Played @ShreyasIyer15 . Many more to come ! pic.twitter.com/UAu27wcWTH

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) November 26, 2021

“100 on debut that to came at the difficult stage #ShreyasIyer,” former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan wrote on Twitter.

100 on debut that to came at the difficult stage #ShreyasIyer

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) November 26, 2021

Iyer’s exploits helped India to stitch a first innings total of 345. For New Zealand, Tim Southee bagged a fifer while Kyle Jamieson and Ajaz Patel took three and two wickets, respectively.

In reply, New Zealand were 129/0 at stumps on day two with openers Will Young (75*) and Tom Latham (50*) hitting half-centuries.