The former Pakistan veteran Saleem Malik had a long international career where he represented his country in both Test and ODI cricket. His international career started in an unprecedented way as he became the youngest to score a century on Test debut. He achieved this milestone against Sri Lanka in 1982.
First Innings
Sri Lanka toured Pakistan in 1982 for a 3-match Test series that started in Karachi. Winning the toss, Pakistan elected to bat first. Initially, the home team had to suffer as they lost half of the side with only 113 runs on the board. Big names like Javed Miandad could not stay on the crease for too long. The young debutant Saleem Malik came out to bat at No.3. He was looking solid as he faced 55 deliveries but one outstanding delivery from Ashantha de Mel cleaned him up. Malik could only score 12 runs on his debut.
However, Pakistan recovered from the early setbacks courtesy of a century from Haroon Rasheed, who scored 153 runs. The hosts ended up with 396 runs in the first innings. Sri Lanka got a good start in their batting stint, and at one point, they were cruising with 120 runs in their account for the loss of only one wicket. However, Pakistan made a comeback and prevented Sri Lanka from taking a lead in the first innings. The visitors were restricted to 344 runs at the end of the first innings, resulting in a lead for Pakistan.
A historic century from the debutant
Although Pakistan had a lead in the first innings, it was not a sizable lead and they needed to consolidate in the second innings. The young Saleem Malik took the responsibility and scored an unbeaten century to guide Pakistan to 301 runs in the second innings before they declared. The youngster built key partnerships with veterans like Javed Miandad and Iqbal Qasim. As a result of this phenomenal batting display, Pakistan gave a massive target of 354 runs for Sri Lanka to chase.
The visitors could not replicate their first innings batting performance and crumbled under the pressure exerted by a formidable Pakistan bowling attack. Qasim was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan with four wickets to his name. Eventually, the home team won the match by 204 runs as Sri Lanka got bowled out for a low total of 149 runs.