Dashing opener Virender Sehwag became the third fastest Indian to score 6000 Test runs after Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar, during his unbeaten 284 run knock on the second day of the third and final match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai.
Sehwag, who needed 45 runs going into Thursday's match to reach 6000, took 123 innings to reach the milestone while Tendulkar and Gavaskar did the same in 120 and 117 innings respectively.
True to his dashing batsmanship, the Delhi batsman reached the milestone by hoisting Sri Lankan Rangana Herath for a straight six over long off.
Sehwag also became the eighth Indian to cross the 6000-run mark in Test cricket. Playing in his 72nd Test, he has now 6213 runs with 17 hundreds and 19 half-centuries at an average of 52.65.
The other Indians who have achieved this milestone in their careers are Sachin Tendulkar (still playing), Rahul Dravid (still playing), Sunil Gavaskar (10122 runs in 125 Tests), Sourav Ganguly (7212 runs in 113 Tests), Dilip Vengsarkar (6868 runs in 116 Tests), VVS Laxman (still playing), Mohd Azharuddin (6215 in 99 Tests) and Gundappa Viswanath (6080 in 91 Tests).
Sehwag has also become the highest double century maker for India having a total of six such innings to his name, one more than Dravid. Tendulkar and Gavaskar have scored four double centuries each.
Sehwag's unbeaten 284 also surpassed his own highest score on a single day -- 257 amassed en route to his 319 against South Africa in Chennai in March last year.
The 31-year-old right hander has also scored 6730 runs from 211 One-dayers with 11 hundreds at an average of 33.98, and 223 runs from the 23 Twenty20 Internationals.
Most of the runs scored by Sehwag were made as opener, a position he first occupied at the Lord's Test against England in July 2002 after starting his Test career as a lower middle-order batsman at Bloemfontein against South Africa in November 2001.
At the end of the second day's play Sehwag stood poised to become the first-ever batsman to notch three triple hundreds in Test cricket. At present he, along with Australian legend Donald Bradman and West Indian great Brian Lara are the only two players with two triple tons to their names.
Sehwag's two triple tons were against South Africa (319 at Chennai in 2008) and 309 against Pakistan (at Multan in 2004). His other 200-plus scores, apart from today's unfinished 284, are 254 against Pakistan (at Lahore in 2006), 201 not out against Sri Lanka (at Galle in 2008) and 201 against Pakistan (at Bangalore in 2005).
He has crossed the 150-run mark on 12 occasions, including today. PTI
