India’s top 3 Test moments in 2019

#2 Rohit Sharma’s splendid debut as Test opener

Rohit Sharma - stepping into Virender Sehwag's shoes?

Although Rohit Sharma has been prolific in the shorter formats, even notching up a world record five consecutive hundreds in the World Cup, he was finding it difficult to break into the Test playing XI. Things got tougher on the tour of West Indies as Hanuma Vihari was preferred over Sharma owing to his all-round abilities, and he delivered with a man of the match effort at Jamaica - 111 and 53 not out.

The only spot vacant now was at the top of the order, with Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and KL Rahul having failed to grab their chances. In a re-run of the Virender Sehwag situation, Sharma was asked to open against South Africa and the rest, as clichéd as it may sound, is history.

Sharma did create history by becoming the first batsman ever to smash hundreds in both innings of his first Test as opener. After easing his way to 176 in the first innings, Sharma added 127 in his second.

During the match played at Visakhapatnam, Sharma also broke Wasim Akram’s record of most sixes in an innings. While Akram had 12 to his name against Zimbabwe in 1996, and Sharma bettered it by one.

Rohit Sharma

In the third Test of the series at Ranchi, the opener brought up his maiden double hundred in Tests, and also became the first Indian batsman to score 500-plus runs in a Test series against South Africa. He formed a formidable partnership with Mayank Agarwal, who also scored gallons of runs at the top of the order.