On This Day in 2004: Sehwag Scores His First Test Century as an Indian

This day twenty years ago saw the debut of Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag as the first player to hit three hundred in a Test match. In the first Test match of the series against Pakistan, which took place at the Multan Cricket Stadium, Sehwag accomplished this accomplishment. The Indian cricket squad was being led by Rahul Dravid in lieu of Sourav Ganguly.

India won the toss and elected to bat first in the first game. At stumps on the first day, they had amassed 356/2 thanks to an unbroken 228 runs from Virender Sehwag. Sehwag broke the triple-digit barrier on the second day of the test.

Because Virender Sehwag was batting on 295 when he hit a huge six in Saqlain Mushtaq’s over to complete his triple century, it made his performance even more memorable. In the process, he defeated Pakistan, their bitter rivals, in their city, and achieved the best individual score by an Indian batter.

It was none other than Sanjay Manjrekar, who in 1989 set a record when he scored 218 runs in Lahore. Finally, Sehwag was removed by Mohammad Sami after he scored an incredible 309 runs off 375 balls. His incredible knock included six maximums and 39 boundaries.

For Virender Sehwag, who achieved the record for the best score by an Indian in 2008, March 29 is even more noteworthy. On the third day of the Test in Chennai, Sehwag broke the previous record against South Africa. The next day, Sehwag hit 10 more runs to bring his total to 319 runs after recording his career-high knock of 309 runs.

In 2019, Virender Sehwag wrote an emotional post on social networking site X (previously Twitter) about his accomplishments. The 29th of March is a day that has come to have particular meaning for me. I was honoured to become the first Indian to reach 300 in Test cricket on this day in 2004, when I scored 309 against Pakistan. Four years later, I had the chance to exceed 309 when I scored 319 against South Africa,” Sehwag said on social media.

Karun Nair is the second Indian player to make a triple century in this format, after Virender Sehwag. In a 2016 Test match against England, he reached this significant milestone.