Rohit Sharma Smashes Century in First Innings as Test Opener
Rohit Sharma smashed his fourth Test century against South Africa on the first day at Visakhapatnam.
Opening the innings in a Test for the first time, Rohit Sharma smashed a century against South Africa on the first day of the first Test at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, 2 October.
The Indian batsman, who last played a Test in December last year, overcame a nervous start to reach his fourth century in the format, off 154 balls. This is Rohit’s first Test century since his 102* against Sri Lanka at Nagpur in November 2017.
He had never opened even in domestic first-class cricket apart from his two-ball duck in a practice game against South Africa last week. With his 115* on Wednesday, Rohit became only the fourth Indian batsman to score a century while opening for the first time in Tests.
This is also Rohit’s sixth straight fifty-plus score in Tests in India, making him only the second India and fourth player overall to achieve this feat. He has joined West Indian Everton Weekes, Zimbabwean Andy Flower and India's Rahul Dravid.
Rohit is in the form of his life and many former India cricketers, including Yuvraj Singh, believe that the Mumbaikar should be playing in all formats and given a long run as a Test opener.
He could not be accommodated in the middle-order in the two Tests in the West Indies but with KL Rahul dropped due to lack of runs, Rohit was promoted right up the order.
Initially, Rohit along with fellow opener Mayank Agarwal appeared to be unsure at the crease in the early overs when Sharma struggled against Vernon Philander (0-19), who used the new ball to good effect and hit a brilliant length outside off.
Sharma played and missed a couple of times as he worked hard to counter the little movement Philander generated. At the other end, Kagiso Rabada (0-16) tested Agarwal with some short bowling but without success.
India made slow progress in the first hour, scoring only 37 runs off 15 overs.
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