List of consecutive double centuries in Test cricket

After a breathtaking inning at the Nagpur, Indian skipper Virat Kohli followed it up with a career-best score of 243 at his home ground, Delhi. The second day of the third Test has been action-packed and dramatic with all the pollution levels creeping up and Kohli missing out on a well-deserved triple century.

But what matters the most is the marathon man has scored two double tons in two consecutive games now and by doing so, he joined a very elite list of players. The first ever person in cricket history to have emulated this act was the legendary all-rounder Walter Reginald Hammond, AKA Wally Hammond. The former English skipper first did it against Australia and incidentally, he repeated the achievement five years later against New Zealand.

Touted as one of the greatest all-rounders the game has ever seem, Wally Hammond was a prolific run-scorer in cricket history. He belonged to the era of Sir Donald Bradman and Sir Jack Hobbs and he always will remain in the same brackets with these players. Talking of Sir Don, he is the second cricketer to have achieved this feat and it came against the arch-rivals England.

 After a 59-year gap

After both these legends from the previous generation registered successive double tons, it took over half a century for this to happen again. It was Vinod Kambli who registered consecutive 200s for India in 1993, after a gap of 59 years. Unlike Hammond and Sir Don, his double tons came against different oppositions (England and Zimbabwe).

Sri Lankan batting maestro Kumar Sangakkara was in his prime during the 2007 period and justifying that fact, he became the fourth cricketer to score two continuous double tons. Sri Lanka was hosting Bangladesh for a two-match Test series and in both the Tests, he registered scores of 200* at Colombo and 222* at Kandy.

Talk about the greatest batsmen in the last 7-8 years, Michael Clarke‘s name will definitely be right up there. He remained a bit subdued when he was in the Mighty Aussie squad, but from the time he became the Australian skipper, Michael Clarke became a force to reckon with, winning games all by his own. Against South Africa, he scored two unforgettable double-centuries at Brisbane and Adelaide, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest in cricket history.

People had to wait another five years for this to happen once again and who else, but Virat Kohli did it against the Lankans.

Here’s the list of all the cricketers who scored consecutive double tons in Tests.