New Zealand's opening batsmen, Tom Latham and Devon Conway, have etched their names into the cricketing history books with an unprecedented achievement during the third Test against the West Indies. Their remarkable performance has also brought Indian Test captain Shubman Gill's own recent historic feat back into the spotlight.
A Historic Opening Act in New Zealand
Tom Latham and Devon Conway have achieved something no opening pair in the long history of first-class cricket has ever done before. They have both scored centuries in each innings of the same Test match. This extraordinary display of consistency and skill is a rare gem even in Test cricket's rich tapestry.
This is only the fourth instance in Test history where any two batsmen from the same team have scored hundreds in both innings of a match. The most recent occurrence before this was in 2024, when Sri Lanka's Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis accomplished it against Bangladesh. Prior to that, Pakistan's Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq did it in 2014, and the legendary Australian brothers, Ian and Greg Chappell, first set the benchmark in 1974.
Records Tumble in a Run-Fest
The match in Christchurch was a run-fest of epic proportions. New Zealand amassed a colossal 881 runs in total, their highest ever team score in a Test match, surpassing the 874 they made against India in Auckland back in 1990. The opening pairs from both teams collectively added 669 runs for the first wicket, setting a new world record for the highest combined first-wicket partnership runs in a Test, breaking the 1956 Chennai record of 577.
Latham and Conway were central to this dominance. Their combined match aggregate of 565 runs is the highest ever by an opening pair in Tests. Conway scored 327 runs in the match, the third-highest total by a New Zealander, while Latham contributed 238. They also became only the third and fourth Black Caps batters, after Glenn Turner (1974) and Peter Fulton (2013), to score a hundred in each innings of a Test.
Furthermore, they became the first pair ever to record both a triple-century stand and a century stand in the same Test. Their partnership in the second Test of the series was also record-breaking, as their combined 515 runs as openers broke the previous world record of 415.
Shubman Gill's Parallel Masterclass
This New Zealand milestone naturally draws a parallel to a similar, staggering individual performance by India's captain, Shubman Gill, earlier in the year. Devon Conway became only the 10th player in Test history to score a double-century and a century in the same match. He is the second to do so in 2025, following Shubman Gill's monumental effort at Edgbaston.
During the Test against England from July 2 to 6, Gill played what is arguably one of the greatest individual innings of the year. He smashed a brilliant 269 in the first innings and followed it up with a commanding 161 in the second. His match aggregate of 430 runs is the second-highest in Test history, behind only Graham Gooch's 456.
Gill's achievement was multifaceted: he became the first player ever to score a double hundred and a 150-plus score in the same Test, and only the second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to hit a double and a single hundred in one match. Significantly, he also became the first Asian captain to score a Test double hundred on English soil. His heroics powered India to a massive 336-run victory, their first-ever Test win at the Edgbaston ground.
A Legacy of Family and Firsts
Adding a poignant layer to Tom Latham's achievement is a unique family connection. Before Conway and Latham's feat, New Zealand had only managed two century opening stands in a Test on one previous occasion. That was in 1992 in Bulawayo against Zimbabwe, and it featured Rod Latham – Tom's father – who partnered with Mark Greatbatch.
The performances of Conway, Latham, and Gill underscore a thrilling period in Test cricket where batting records are being challenged and rewritten. They highlight the levels of concentration, skill, and endurance required to excel in the game's most demanding format, providing fans with moments of genuine sporting history.
