Indian opener Mayank Agarwal’s maiden double century put the hosts on the driver seat on the second day of the first Test against South Africa. His terrific knock not only took the scoreboard beyond the 450-run mark, but the dashing opener also became the fourth Indian batsman to convert his maiden ton into a double hundred.


The Karnataka batsman is now the fourth Indian batsman after Karun Nair, Vinod Kambli and Dilip Sardesai to convert their maiden Test tons into a double century.

Nair scored 303, his first Test century against England in 2016. Former Indian batsman Vinod Kambli had scored 224 against England in 1993 while Sardesai had scored 200* against New Zealand in 1965.

Mayank was also involved in a record-breaking 317-run opening partnership with Rohit Sharma. The duo became the third Indian batting pair to stitch together a partnership of 300 runs or more in Test cricket. Rohit went on to score 176 after opening the Indian innings for the first time in his Test career. Mayank contributed with 137 runs during their historic partnership.

The other two Indian opening pair to stitch together a partnership of more than 300 runs in Test cricket are Vinoo Mankad-Pankaj Roy (413 against New Zealand in 1956) and Virender Sehwag-Rahul Dravid (410 against Pakistan in 2006).

The record-breaking partnership was also the 12th highest opening partnership in Test cricket. Mayank got out for 215 from 371 deliveries. His innings was studded with 23 fours and six sixes.