IND vs SA, 1st Test: Rohit's 2nd Innings Ton Makes Him 'Best Opener'; Akram's 23 YO Record Broken

Rohit brought up his 5th Test ton which took him to an elite list of Indian batters who have slammed a hundred in each innings

Promotion as an opener in the longest format of the game has certainly escalated Rohit Sharma’s confidence.  After slamming his maiden century as an Indian Test opener in the first innings against South Africa, the HITMAN notched up another triple-figure in the second as well. Just like his previous outing with the bat, the right-hand batter punished the Proteas bowlers left, right and centre. As Mayank Agarwal was dismissed early, Rohit stitched a 169-run stand for the 2nd wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara. During this partnership, Rohit brought up his 5^th Test ton which took him to an elite list of Indian batters who have slammed a hundred in each innings. He is now the sixth Indian batsman to reach this feat. The first one to do so was former batting legend Vijay Hazare, followed by Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Moreover, Rohit is the is the first batsman in the history of Test cricket to score 2 centuries when opening for the first time. Rohit’s innings was laced with 7 sixes and 10 boundaries. Adding the six sixes from the first innings, the count becomes 13 which is a world record of most maximums in a Test match. The 32-year-old shattered the long-standing record of former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram who had slammed 12 sixes against Zimbabwe in 1996. Rohit reached this feat after slamming Dan Piedt for three sixes in a row.

Rohit Sharma's 6,6,6 in one over https://t.co/JMq2ubbzSr #BCCI

— Maqbool (@im_maqbool) October 5, 2019

This enthralling batting show came to an end in the 57^th over when Rohit danced down the like to slam his 13^th six but failed to connect. Quinton de Kock was fast enough to grab the ball and dislodged the bails before the batsman could make a safe return inside the crease. Well, it’s a weird milestone but Rohit grabbed it – the only opener across the world so far to get stumped out twice in a Test match.