Stats: Rohit Sharma registers a rare feat with hat-trick sixes

Rohit Sharma made his maiden appearance as a Test opener a memorable one smashing the World record for most sixes in a Test match by an individual. He also became the first player with twin hundreds in the first Test as an opener and finished with 303 runs in the game. While there were a lot of records which Rohit broke in the game, the rarest of ones was smashing Dane Piedt for three straight sixes before getting dismissed in the 2nd innings.

With those hat-trick sixes, Rohit Sharma became only the 14th player to hit three or more sixes off consecutive deliveries in the longer format. Of the previous 13 players with this feat, none of them struck while opening the innings and only three have been from India. Back in 1990, Kapil Dev smashed four consecutive sixes at the Lord’s to help avoid India the follow-on. He thus became the first player with four successive sixes in Tests, a feat that was matched by only two players globally.

Shahid Afridi (against India in 2006) and AB de Villiers (against Australia in 2009) are the other two players to hit four successive sixes in an over in Test cricket. MS Dhoni became the 2nd Indian to hit three in a row during the 2006 Caribbean tour. In the bowling of Dare Mohammad, Dhoni hit three consecutive sixes to help India declare early. He tried to hit 4th maximum in a row but was given out controversially as the fielder who took his catch at the boundary rope seemed to have touched the rope.

Hardik Pandya was the player to record this achievement for any team as he took on Malinda Pushpakumara during his debut Test series in 2017 against Sri Lanka. Only two months before Pandya’s feat, the England all-rounder Ben Stokes took on Keshav Maharaj during the home Test series. Maharaj was on the receiving end against Rohit as well in the Vizag Test. The Indian opener smashed him five sixes in total before getting stumped twice in two innings.

Most sixes off consecutive deliveries in a Test inning:

(Stats as on October 6, 2019)