Rohit Sharma began his new innings in Test cricket with his debut century as an opener. He slammed a sensational century to prove his mettle and shut the critics.
How Rohit shut all
The three-match Test series started off with India focusing differently on a lot of aspects. India began without their star bowler Jasprit Bumrah, and first-choice all-rounder Hardik Pandya. They gave preference to Wriddhiman Saha which is undoubtedly a setback for Rishabh Pant. Moreover, finally, Rohit Sharma was ready to start career as a Test opener. This was Rohit’s fourth overall ton in whites. He began slowly and gradually cut loose to reach his ton off 154 balls in the 54th over of the first innings of India. The 32-year old was miserable in the warm-up game for Board President’s XI against the South Africans. So this match was a real Test for the hitman of ODI.
The records by Rohit
Rohit became the fourth Indian to slam a century in maiden innings as an opener for India after Shikhar Dhawan (187 vs Australia in Mohali 2012/13), KL Rahul (110 vs Australia at SCG in 2014/15), Prithvi Shaw (134 vs West Indies at Rajkot in 2018/19).
Although Rohit Sharma could never really showcase his greatness in the longer format, he was always this good at home. Earlier he had scores of 82, 51*, 102*, 65 and 50* in India before today and he continued the run in Visakhapatnam. He also joined Everton Weekes (Nov 1948 – Feb 1949), Rahul Dravid (Nov 1997 – Mar 1998) and Andy Flower (Mar 1993 – Nov 2000) to register 50+ scores in six consecutive Test innings in India.
As the day ends, Indian openers remained unbeaten with 202 onboard. Rohit Sharma is currently batting on 115 and Mayank Agarwal is on 85. They became only the seventh Indian opening pair to add 100+ in first innings together. A Mankad and Farokh Engineer were the first to do so against Australia in Kanpur (1969/70) while KL Rahul and Parthiv Patel were the last to do so in Chennai against England (2016/17). This was also the third 100+ opening stand overall in 2019 in Tests following New Zealand‘s 254 and Sri Lanka’s 161.
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