On This Day In 2004: Sehwag Becomes 1st Indian Triple-centurion in Tests

Twenty years ago on this day, Virender Sehwag became the first Indian cricketer to have scored a triple hundred in Tests. Sehwag achieved this feat during the Test series opener against their arch-rivals Pakistan, held at the Multan Cricket Stadium. In the absence of Sourav Ganguly, it was Rahul Dravid who was leading the Indian cricket team.

In the first match, India won the toss and chose to bat first. They had scored 356/2 at stumps on the opening day, where Virender Sehwag had produced an unbeaten knock of 228 runs. It was on the second day of the Test that Sehwag breached the triple-digit mark.

What made his knock even more special was that Virender Sehwag had smashed a massive six in Saqlain Mushtaq’s over, when he was batting on 295 and then scored his triple century. In that process he also scored the highest individual score by an Indian batter against their arch-rivals Pakistan in their hometown.

It was Sanjay Manjrekar, who had earlier held the record for scoring 218 runs in Lahore in 1989. Mohammad Sami finally dismissed Sehwag who came up with a sublime knock of 309 runs off 375 balls. His stunning knock comprised 39 boundaries and six maximums.

The date March 29 is also more special for Virender Sehwag as in 2008 he broke his record for the highest score by an Indian. Sehwag set the record against South Africa in Chennai on the third day of the Test. Sehwag had recorded his career-best knock of 309 runs on the next day he scored 10 more runs to extend his score to 319 runs.

Recalling his achievements, Virender Sehwag penned a heartfelt note on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in 2019. “29th March- A date which has ended up becoming special for me. On this day in 2004, I had the honour of becoming the first Indian to score a 300 in Test Cricket, scoring 309 against Pak & 4 years later on the same date got an opportunity to surpass 309, while scoring 319 vs SA,” Sehwag had posted.

Besides Virender Sehwag, Karun Nair is the second Indian player to have scored a triple century in this format. He achieved this milestone in Test cricket against England in 2016.