India's Rohit Sharma raises his bat to acknowledge the applause from the spectators after scoring double century during the second day of third and last cricket test match between India and South Africa in Ranchi
Rohit Sharma continued with his domineering start as India's new Test opener after scoring two back-to-back hundreds in the opener against South Africa in Visakhapatnam as he scored his maiden double hundred in the format in the third Test in Ranchi. While it was India's third double ton in the series after Mayank Agarwal in the first Test and Virat Kohli in the second Test, Rohit notched up a couple of records as well including surpassing the greatest ever and joining Indian greats Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in an elite list.
98.22 Rohit's 212 off 255 deliveries helped him register an astonishing home average of 99.84 as he stands atop in the list of highest batting average at home among players who have played at least 10 Tests at home. Bradman stands second with an average of 98.22 from 33 Tests. Rohit has so far amassed 1298 runs in 12 Tests at home with six tons and five half-centuries.
529 Rohit's double ton helped him surpass former South Africa cricketer Jacques Kallis's tally of 498 runs (2010/11) to become the highest scoring batsman in the rivalry contest in a single series. He had gone past Mohammad Azharuddin's tally of 388 (in 1996/97) earlier on day 1 to become the highest-scoring Indian in the list.
5 Rohit became the fifth Indian opener to score more than 500 runs in a single Test series and first since Sehwag's 544 runs against Pakistan in 2004/05. Vinoo Mankad, Budhi Kunderan, Sunil Gavaskar (five times) are the other Indian openers on the list.
1 Ranchi Test is the first time that three Indian batters have scored double centuries in a Test series - Mayank Agarwal (215) in first Test and Virat Kohli (254*) in the second Test. And it is the second instance of India scoring double centuries in three consecutive Tests - Kohli 235 against England, Karun Nair 303* against England, Kohli 204 against Bangladesh in 2016/17 was the first instance.
4 Rohit became the fourth batsman in the world and third Indian to have double centuries in both Tests and ODIs. Sachin, Sehwag and Windies great Chris Gayle are the other three batters on the list.
