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NEW DELHI: By going back to his opening position in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the MCG starting Thursday, India captain Rohit Sharma would be hoping to strike form with the bat.
Rohit, who has hit a horror patch of form, has just 19 runs from the two Tests he has played at Adelaide and Brisbane in this series.
Rohit is yet to hit a hundred in Australia with his highest score being an unbeaten 63 and that came in the Boxing Day Test in December 2018. Rohit has scored most of his Test runs as an opener and would be looking to draw some inspiration from then.
But statistics show that no Indian opener, apart from Virender Sehwag, has scored a hundred against Australia at this venue in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The rivalry between the two nations was rechristened in 1996 with the first tour Down Under coming three years later.
Sehwag may have hit two triple hundreds in his Test career but his 195 at the MCG in the 2003-04 is one of his best knocks.
With a draw in Brisbane and victory in Adelaide, India were in the lead and the Aussies were desperate for a win. The third Test at the MCG got underway with Sourav Ganguly winning the toss and opting to bat. And then Sehwag cut loose.
Sehwag had a perfect opening partner in Aakash Chopra, who was an opener of the traditional mould looking to see off the new ball and together the Delhi duo put up a 141-run stand.
Getting hit twice on the helmet by bouncers off Brett Lee, didn’t deter Sehwag one bit. His punches off the back foot through the covers, his clean hits down the ground and his flicks through mid-wicket bore the stamp of an onslaught of an opener looking to make a statement.
Sehwag’s stroke play that day had all the trademark shots, especially his hits through the covers with his feet absolutely nowhere near the ball. But the bat was so perfectly positioned that the ball raced through the infield of the MCG that was undergoing renovation at that time. Sehwag got to his fifty off 78 balls and reached his fifth Test century off 144 deliveries with a flick through mid-wicket. It was his fourth Test hundred as an opener.
Having reached his 150 off 200 balls, Sehwag looked set for his maiden double ton till Aussie part-time bowler Simon Katich tossed a juicy full toss on the middle-stump. Sehwag’s eyes lit up: chance to get to a maiden 200 with a six. He swung his willow but slightly mistimed it and the ball went straight to Nathan Bracken who was stationed at deep mid-wicket.
Sehwag’s 195-run onslaught came off 233 deliveries and was studded with five sixes and 25 fours. In trademark style, Sehwag later said that he would play the same shot again irrespective of the score he might be on.
The next best opening stand by an Indian pair at the MCG is between Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay who put up 55 runs in December 2014 and the match ended in a draw.
In December 2018, Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari put up a 40-run opening stand in the first innings and a 28-run partnership in the second essay as India defeated Australia by 137 runs.
This is the same match in which Rohit scored an unbeaten 63 batting at No. 6 in the first innings enabling India to declare at 443/7 before Jasprit Bumrah unleashed his magic by taking 9 wickets in the match.
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