Rohit Sharma breaks Test record for most sixes struck in a single game

Sharma, in his first red-ball game for India at the top of the order, struck six sixes in his side’s first innings, before following up with seven more second time around

Rohit Sharma has broken a 23-year-old record previously held by Wasim Akram after hitting 13 sixes in the first Test between India and South Africa.

Sharma, in his first red-ball game for India at the top of the order, struck six sixes in his side’s first innings, before following up with seven more second time around as he looked to push his team towards a score on which Virat Kohli could feel safe enough to declare.

His success in Test cricket seems long overdue, given the languid nature of his strokeplay – his ODI record is almost unparalleled; he holds the highest score in ODI history and three of the top seven scores ever made in men’s ODIs.

However, he had – until now – appeared unable to totally shift his white-ball dominance into the longer format.

In the first Test of the series at Visakhapatnam, however, Sharma put on 317 for the first wicket with Mayank Agarwal, who himself struck 215 as India declared on 502 in the first innings.

Prior to that knock, however, Sharma had made three centuries in his previous 27 Tests, at an average of 39.62, up and down the Indian middle order.

Unlike Akram, Sharma’s sixes were spread across both innings, whereas the Pakistan legend struck all 12 of his maximums in a single unbeaten 257 against Zimbabwe back in 1996.

Only Navjot Sidhu has hit more sixes for India in a single innings than Sharma’s seven in his second-innings 127. Sidhu hit eight against Sri Lanka back in 1994. Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag have all also struck seven in an innings.

With a single day to go of the Test at Visakhapatnam, 34 sixes have already been hit in the match. The Test record is set at 35 – during New Zealand’s innings victory at Sharjah against Pakistan in 2014. Brendon McCullum struck 11 sixes in a 188-ball 202 on that occasion.