Statsman: Pant becomes eighth Indian batter to hit 50 or more sixes in Tests

Rishabh Pant has the highest innings per six ratio (0.42) among the eight Indian batters with 50 or more sixes in their Test careers.

Rishabh Pant comes down the track during his innings of 92 in the second Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka. Pant hits a six every 23 balls in Test matches. | Photo Credit: AFP

Big-hitting Pant

8 The number of Indian batters to hit 50 or more sixes in their Test career. In the first Test in Chattogram, Rishabh Pant became the latest to do so for India. In doing so, in the 32nd Test match of his career, he required the fewest Tests to reach this landmark among Indians after Rohit Sharma, who hit the 50th six of his career in his 30th match. However, in terms of taking the fewest balls for a six, Pant is the leader, scoring his sixes every 23 balls, while Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma have hit their sixes every 32 and 42 balls, respectively.

Fifty or more sixes hit by Indians in a Test career

6s	Batter	Balls/6	Mts	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	Inns/six
90	Virender Sehwag	77	103	178	8503	319	49.43	23	31	1.33
78	M. S. Dhoni	62	90	144	4876	224	38.09	6	33	1.07
69	Sachin Tendulkar	220	200	329	15921	248*	53.78	51	68	2.46
64	Rohit Sharma	42	45	77	3137	212	46.13	8	14	0.57
61	Kapil Dev	41	131	184	5248	163	31.05	8	27	1.37
57	Sourav Ganguly	105	113	188	7212	239	42.17	16	35	1.40
55	Ravindra Jadeja	32	60	89	2523	175*	36.56	3	17	0.66
55	Rishabh Pant	23	33	56	2271	159*	43.67	5	11	0.42

6 The number of Indian batters who missed the chance of scoring centuries in each innings of a Test match. These batters could only make a century and a 90 score in the same Test. The seven instances include Virat Kohli, who has done it twice. Cheteshwar Pujara, who made his long-awaited century in Chattogram after being dismissed for a 90 in the first innings, is the latest Indian to make an appearance in this list.

India batters making a century and a 90 score in the same Test match

1st	2nd	Batter	Against	Venue	Month, Year	Result
109	96	Chandu Borde	West Indies	Delhi	Feb 1959	Drawn
90	100	Mohinder Amarnath	Australia	Perth	Dec 1977	Lost
239	91	Sourav Ganguly	Pakistan	Bangalore	Dec 2007	Drawn
179	97	Gautam Gambhir	England	Mohali	Dec 2008	Drawn
119	96	Virat Kohli	South Africa	Johannesburg	Dec 2013	Drawn
97	103	Virat Kohli	England	Nottingham	Aug 2018	Won
90	102*	Cheteshwar Pujara	Bangladesh	Chattogram	Dec 2022	Won

51 The number of innings Cheteshwar Pujara needed to register the 19th three-figure score in his Test career (in the Chattogram Test) since scoring his previous century (his 18th) nearly four years ago at the SCG in January 2019. Only Chetan Chauhan and Gautam Gambhir went through a century-less period among top-order batters.

Most innings without a Test century for India among top-order batters

Inns	Batter	Runs	Ave.	50s	HS	From	To
68	Chetan Chauhan	2084	31.58	16	97	Sep 1969	Mar 1981
54	Gautam Gambhir	1462	28.12	12	93	Jan 2010	Nov 2016
51	Cheteshwar Pujara	1456	29.12	14	91	Aug 2019	Dec 2022
48	Ajit Wadekar	1263	28.07	7	91*	Mar 1968	Jul 1974
44	Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi	1207	28.07	11	95	Jun 1967	Jan 1975

Notes:

** Chauhan did not record a three-figure score in his entire Test career

** Gambhir’s final Test century (116), his ninth, came against Bangladesh in Chattogram on 20 Jan 2010. Then he did not register another until the end of his career.

** Pujara’s 18th century was the 193 against Australia at the SCG on 3 Jan 2019. His 19th 100 came in Chattogram on 16 Dec 2022.

**Wadekar’s only Test century — 143 was against New Zealand in Wellington on 2 Mar 1968. He did not register another until the end of his career.

** Pataudi jr’s final Test century (148), his sixth, came against England at Leeds on 12 June 1967. Then he did not register another until the end of his career.

118 The number of Test matches Jaydev Unadkat missed for India when he made a comeback to the side after a 12-year gap in Mirpur in the second and final Test against Bangladesh on 22 December 2022. He thus became the sixth player in Test history to miss 100 or more Tests for a side. Only England’s Gareth Batty has missed more Tests (142) than Unadkat. Before Unadkat, the Indian player to miss the most Tests was Dinesh Karthik, who missed 87 Tests from January 2010 to June 2018. Only two other Indians took more time than Unadkat — Lala Amarnath (12y-129d) and Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi (12y-10d) between their two Tests, but their span included six years of World War II (1940-1945).

Players missing 100 or more Tests in a row

Tests missed	Player	For	From	To	Years missed	Total Tests played
142	Gareth Batty	England	5-Jun-2005	20-Oct-2016	11y, 137d	9
118	Jaydev Unadkat	India	20-Dec-2010	22-Dec-2022	12y, 2d	2*
114	Martin Bicknell	England	9-Aug-1993	21-Aug-2003	10y, 12d	4
109	Floyd Reifer	West Indies	18-Jan-1999	9-Jul-2009	10y, 172d	6
104	Younis Ahmed	Pakistan	2-Nov-1969	21-Feb-1987	17y, 111d	4
103	Derek Shackleton	England	7-Nov-1951	20-Jun-1963	11y, 225d	7

6 The number of players to do the double of 3000 runs and 400 wickets in Test cricket history. R. Ashwin, playing in the 88th Test match of his career, became the latest to join this elite club and the second Indian after Kapil Dev. He achieved his 3000th run in the first innings of the Mirpur Test, thus becoming a part of this small group. Incidentally, Ashwin is the second quickest to reach this milestone after Kiwi Richard Hadlee, who did it in 83 matches.

With 449 wickets to his credit, Ashwin is one short of becoming only the third player in Test history to do the double of 3000 runs and 450 wickets. He should join Shane Warne and Stuart Broad with his next Test wicket.

Test players with 3000+ runs and 400+ wickets

Player	For	Tests	Runs	Wkts	Achieved the double	(Runs+wkts at the end of the innings)
Richard Hadlee	NZ	86	3124	431	in March 1990 in his 83rd Test match vs Aus in Wellington	(3017+413)
Kapil Dev	Ind	131	5258	434	in Feb 1992 in his 115th Test match vs Aus in Perth	(4690+401)
Shane Warne	Aus	145	3154	708	in Dec 2006 in his 142nd Test match vs Eng in Adelaide	(3018+690)
Shaun Pollock	SA	108	3781	421	in Dec 2006 in his 103rd Test match vs Ind in Jo’burg	(3520+402)
Stuart Broad	Eng	159	3550	566	in Aug 2018 in his 121st Test match vs Ind in Nottingham	(3008+427)
R. Ashwin	Ind	88	3043	449	in Dec 2022 in his 88th Test match vs Ban in Mirpur

42 R. Ashwin’s unbeaten match-winning knock in the fourth innings of the Mirpur Test match. His knock is now the highest individual score in Test history by a player batting at #9 or lower in a successful run chase.

Highest individual Test scores while batting at positions #9 or lower in a successful run chase

Runs	Batter	Bat#	For	Agst	Venue	Date
42*	R. Ashwin	9	Ind	Ban	Mirpur	22-Dec-2022
40*	Winston Benjamin	10	WI	Pak	Bridgetown	27-Apr-1988
38*	Sydney Barnes	9	Eng	Aus	Melbourne	7-Jan-1908
35	Rashid Latif	9	Pak	Aus	Karachi	2-Oct-1994
34*	Gerry Hazlitt	10	Aus	Eng	Sydney	19-Dec-1907

71 The unbeaten match-winning stand between Shreyas Iyer and R. Ashwin in the fourth innings of the Mirpur Test match set a few records for the eighth wicket in Test cricket. The tables below provide the details.

Highest Test match winning partnerships for the eighth wicket in a run chase

Stand	Pair	For	Against	Venue	Date
71*	Shreyas Iyer (29*), R. Ashwin (42*)	Ind	Ban	Mirpur	22-Dec-2022
52	Inzamam-ul-Haq (58*), Rashid Latif (35)	Pak	Aus	Karachi	2-Oct-1994
46*	Omari Banks (47*), Vasbert Drakes (27*)	WI	Aus	St. John’s	13-May-2003
41	Inzamam-ul-Haq (138*), Shabbir Ahmed (13*)	Pak	Ban	Multan	6-Sep-2003
34	Sammy Carter (61), Tibby Cotter (33*)	Aus	Eng	Sydney	19-Dec-1907

Highest Test match winning unbeaten partnerships in a chase for the eighth wicket

Stand	Pair	For	Against	Venue	Date
71*	Shreyas Iyer (29*), R. Ashwin (42*)	Ind	Ban	Mirpur	25-Dec-2022
46*	Omari Banks (47*), Vasbert Drakes (27*)	WI	Aus	St. John’s	13-May-2003
33*	Jack Hobbs (93*), Henry Leveson Gower (12*)	Eng	SA	Johannesburg	3-Mar-1910
30*	Ricky Ponting (118*), Jason Gillespie (4*)	Aus	Ban	Fatullah	13-Apr-2006
25*	Hugh Trumble (17*), James Kelly (8*)	Aus	Eng	Manchester	18 Jul 1896

Highest Test match winning unbeaten partnerships in a chase from a lower order pair (eighth wicket and below)

Stand	Wkt	Pair	For	Against	Venue	Date
78*	10	Kusal Perera (153*), Vishwa Fernando (6*)	SL	SA	Durban	16-Feb-2019
76*	10	Ben Stokes (135*), Jack Leach (1*)	Eng	Aus	Leeds	25-Aug-2019
71*	8	Shreyas Iyer (29*), R. Ashwin (42*)	Ind	Ban	Mirpur	25-Dec-2022
61*	9	Jeffery Dujon (29*), Winston Benjamin (40*)	WI	Pak	Bridgetown	27-Apr-1988
57*	10	Inzamam-ul-Haq (58*), Mushtaq Ahmed (20*)	Pak	Aus	Karachi	2-Oct-1994

All records are correct and updated until 31 December 2022