Following India’s dismissal for 438, West Indies concluded day three of the second Test match in Port of Spain at 229-5. On the fourth morning, they successfully steered clear of the follow-on, but Mohammed Siraj stole the limelight with a career-best performance, securing impressive figures of 5-60 to dismiss the West Indies for 255.
With rain looming, India sought quick runs to make an early declaration. To achieve this, the opening pair of Captain Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal wasted no time and set off promptly.
Rohit dominated the strike, capitalising on the opportunity to achieve the fastest fifty of his Test career, accomplishing it in just 35 balls. Among Indian players, nine fifties have been achieved at a quicker pace, including two others completed in 35 balls.
Notably, Kapil Dev holds four out of the eleven entries for such rapid fifties. However, the overall Indian record still belongs to Rishabh Pant, who achieved a fifty in just 28 balls against Sri Lanka in the 2021/22 season. Interestingly, only one of these rapid fifties, achieved in 33 balls, was scored against West Indies, and it was accomplished by Virender Sehwag at Gros Islet in 2006.
Jaiswal and Rohit carried on with their aggressive approach. At the 10-over mark, India reached an impressive 90-0, setting a new record for the highest number of runs scored by a team at that stage in an inning.
When Rohit was dismissed after scoring 57 runs off 44 balls, he and Jaiswal had already put together a formidable partnership of 98 runs in just 71 balls. Their extraordinary run rate of 8.28 stands as the fastest for any opening partnership that has accumulated more than 50 runs. (It is worth noting that Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan once chased down exactly 50 runs in five overs.)
Rohit and Jaiswal concluded the series with a remarkable total of 466 runs over the course of three matches. This achievement now stands as the highest-ever record for any Indian Test series played away from home, surpassing the previous record of 459 runs set by Sehwag and Akash Chopra during eight innings in Australia in 2004/05.
Even when considering the home series, only two pairs have aggregated more runs for the first wicket. Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan scored an impressive 537 runs in eight innings against Australia in 1979/80, while Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir amassed 477 runs in eight innings against Pakistan in 2004/05.
India swiftly achieved the fastest team hundred in Test cricket, achieving the milestone in just 14.2 overs. Following Jaiswal’s dismissal after scoring a brisk 38 runs off 30 balls, Shubman Gill was joined by Ishan Kishan at the crease.
Kishan wasted no time and quickly notched up a blazing fifty in just 33 balls, equalling Sehwag’s record for the joint-fastest fifty by an Indian against the West Indies. Moreover, this remarkable feat also marked the second-fastest Test fifty ever recorded by an Indian wicketkeeper, second only to Pant’s achievement, which was mentioned earlier.
A moment later, Rohit decided to call Gill, who scored 29 runs in 37 balls, and Kishan, who achieved an impressive 52 runs in just 34 balls. This strategic move brought India’s total to 181-2 in just 24 overs, setting a new record for the fastest three-digit score in the history of Test cricket. With a run rate of 7.54, they marginally surpassed Australia’s previous record of 7.53 (241-2 declared in 32 overs against Pakistan at Sydney in 2016/17).
On the fourth day of play in the second Test match of the ongoing India-West Indies series at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad, Rohit Sharma etched his name in the history books. Rohit accomplished this milestone as India came out to bat in the second innings of the match, having secured a substantial 183-run lead in the first innings.
Rohit Sharma has now made history by becoming the first batsman ever to achieve 30 consecutive double-digit scores at the international level in the long format of the game. Before this, the record for the most consecutive 10+ scores in Test cricket history was held by the renowned Sri Lankan cricketer, Mahela Jayawardene, with 29 such scores.