Rohit lights up the record books in South Africa series

Rohit Sharma took the fewest innings by an Indian opener to score a maiden Test double century, while hitting by far the most sixes in a Test series.

Rohit Sharma celebrates his double century during the second day of the third and final Test match against South Africa in Ranchi on October 20.

4

The number of Test innings taken by Rohit Sharma to register a maiden double century as an opener is now the fewest by an Indian batsman. The previous Indian record was eight innings, jointly held by Sunil Gavaskar (in 1971) and Mayank Agarwal, who did so earlier in the series.

Fewest innings to score a maiden double century as a Test opener

Innings	Test No.	Batsman	Country	Score	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
1	1	Brendon Kuruppu	Sri Lanka	201*	New Zealand	Colombo CCC	April 19, 1987	Drawn
1	3	Graeme Smith	South Africa	200	Bangladesh	East London	October 18, 2002	Won
2	4	Sid Barnes	Australia	234	England	Sydney	December 17, 1946	Won
2	2	David Lloyd	England	214*	India	Birmingham	July 6, 1974	Won
4	10	Lawrence Rowe	West Indies	302	England	Bridgetown	March 9, 1974	Drawn
4	3	Aamer Sohail	Pakistan	205	England	Manchester	July 2, 1992	Drawn
4	30	Rohit Sharma	India	212	South Africa	Ranchi	October 20, 2019	Won

 

Fewest innings by Indians to score a maiden double century as a Test opener

Innings	Test No.	Batsman	Score	Opponent	Venue	Date	Result
4	30	Rohit Sharma	212	South Africa	Ranchi	October 20, 2019	Won
8	4	Sunil Gavaskar	220	West Indies	Port of Spain	April 19, 1971	Drawn
8	5	Mayank Agarwal	215	South Africa	Pune	October 3, 2019	Won
10	14	Dilip Sardesai	200*	New Zealand	Mumbai (BS)	March 15, 1965	Drawn
20	76	Ravi Shastri	206	Australia	Sydney	January 5, 1992	Drawn

 

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The number of sixes hit by Rohit Sharma in the recent three-match Test series against South Africa is by far the most ever hit in a Test series.

Most sixes hit by a batsman in a Test series

Sixes	Batsman	Country	Opponent	Tests	Innings	Runs	Balls	Balls/six	Year	Result
19	Rohit Sharma	India	South Africa	3	4	529	683	36	2019	Won
15	Shimron Hetmyer	West Indies	Bangladesh	2	4	222	211	16	2018	Lost

Note: Six batsmen have hit 14 sixes in a Test series: Wasim Raja (Pakistan in 1976-77), Andrew Flintoff (England in 2003), Matthew Hayden (Australia in 2003-04), Kevin Pietersen (England in 2005), Shahid Afridi (Pakistan in 2005-06) and Harbhajan Singh (India in 2010-11).

Rohit Sharma’s 19 sixes came off the following bowlers

Sixes	Bowler	Notes
11	Dane Piedt	Eight sixes came in the first Test at Visakhapatnam and three in the third Test at Ranchi
5	Keshav Maharaj	All in the first Test at Visakhapatnam
2	Lungi Ngidi	Both in the third Test at Ranchi
1	Anrich Nortje	Came in the third Test at Ranchi

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The number of sixes hit by the Indian batsmen in the recently concluded series against South Africa is now a new Test record. The previous record came in the five-match Ashes series in 2013-14, when the Australian batsmen hit 40 sixes. The Indian batsmen in this series surpassed the previous record in just three Test matches!

Most sixes hit by one side in a Test series

Sixes	Country	Balls faced	Balls/six	Tests	Opponent	Venue	Year	Result
47	India	2,856	61	3	South Africa	India	2019	3-0
40	Australia	5,102	127	5	England	Australia	2013-14	5-0
37	Pakistan	3,581	97	3	India	Pakistan	2005-06	1-0
36	England	4,590	127	5	Australia	England	2005	2-1

 

65

The number of sixes hit by both sides in the recent Test series between India and South Africa equals the record. The five-match Ashes series in 2013-14 had seen the same number of sixes hit by both sides. However, the recent series in India was of only three Test matches.

Most sixes hit by both sides in a Test series

Sixes	Team 1 (sixes)	Team 2 (sixes)	Balls faced	Balls/six	Tests	Venue	Year	Result
65	Australia (40)	England (25)	9,582	147	5	Australia	2013-14	Australia won 5-0
65	India (47)	South Africa (18)	5,691	88	3	India	2019	India won 3–0
59	New Zealand (32)	Pakistan (27)	6,812	115	3	UAE	2014-15	Drawn 1-1
51	England (36)	Australia (15)	9,122	179	5	England	2005	England won 2-1

 

Queries Corner How often has Virat Kohli not enforced the follow-on when he could have done so? Please provide details. – Ashish Khakar, Baroda Virat Kohli has not enforced the follow-on when he had the opportunity to do so on seven occasions as Test captain. However, his side went on to win all those seven Tests. 213 South Africa Delhi 2015-16 Won by 337 runs 258 New Zealand Indore 2016-17 Won by 321 runs 200 England Visakhapatnam 2016-17 Won by 246 runs 299 Bangladesh Hyderabad 2016-17 Won by 208 runs 309 Sri Lanka Galle 2017 Won by 304 runs 292 Australia Melbourne 2018-19 Won by 137 runs 299 West Indies Kingston 2019 Won by 257 runs   In the Ranchi Test match, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane put on 267 runs for the fourth wicket. Is this now the highest by a Mumbai pair in Tests? – Salil Joshi, Mumbai The Rohit-Ajinkya stand of 267 runs is now the third highest by a Mumbai pair in Test cricket after an unbroken stand of 344 by Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar for the second wicket versus the West Indies at Kolkata in 1978-79, and an unbroken stand of 298 by Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri for the sixth wicket versus Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 1986-87. Which visiting side has the best Test record in the Indian subcontinent? – Rahul Satpathy, New Delhi The most successful visiting side in terms of percentage of wins is South Africa (30.43 percent), followed by Australia (28.57 percent), West Indies (26.44 percent), England (25.47 percent), New Zealand (15.38 percent) and Zimbabwe (10.34 percent). South Africa has now lost its last seven Tests in Asia. Has any other visiting side lost so many in a row on Asian soil? – Kiran Vartak, Nashik Australia has the worst sequence. It lost nine successive Tests in Asia between February 26, 2013, and August 17, 2016 (four in India, two in the UAE and three in Sri Lanka). Also note that another visiting side, the West Indies, in the recent times has had a poor run in Asia. Since November 2013, it has won just one of its last 11 Tests in Asia and has lost the remaining 10!

Note: All figures are updated as of October 26, 2019.