Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal continued their batting attack against an unfortunate South African bowling attack on Day 2 of the first Test in Visakhapatnam as they notched up a surplus of records.
India’s Mayank Agarwal, right, celebrates after scoring fifty runs with Rohit Sharma, left, during the first day of the first cricket test match against South Africa in Visakhapatnam, India, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
India vs South Africa 2019
The duo shared a 317-run partnership, thus breaking Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir’s record for the highest opening partnership for India against the Proteas. The Indian openers thus broke a 15-year old record when Sehwag and Gambhir had put together 218-runs in Kanpur in 2004 at the top of the order.
The duo also became the third Indian opening pair to stitch together a 300-run partnership in Test cricket. Rohit, who was opening the innings for the first time in Test cricket, scored 176 runs while 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 runs against New Zealand in 1956) and Virender Sehwag-Rahul Dravid (410 runs against Pakistan in 2006).
Rohit Sharma, Mayank Break Gambhir – Sehwag Opening Record
Rohit and Mayank have also set a new record for the highest opening stand in India vs South Africa Tests previously held by AC Hudson and Gary Kirsten in 1996. The India duo broke the 22-year-old record when the opening stand went past 236 runs on Thursday.
Reportedly, India made the gamble to promote Rohit to the top of the batting order after consistent failures from the likes of KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan in Tests, over the last 24 months. Notably, Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal became India’s 9th different opening pair since July 2017. It seems India have finally found success, considering the dominant fashion in which Mayank and Rohit have gone about their business in the ongoing Test against South Africa.
