Indian batsmen who could have scored a triple century
Virender Sehwag was the first Indian to score a triple century in Test matches. It was after his innings in Multan against Pakistan in March 2008 that he was given the title of Sultan of Multan. In that innings, he scored 309 from just 375 balls.
Sehwag again reached the 300 run mark against South Africa in Chennai in 2008. It was the second time that he scored a triple century. In that innings, he scored 319 from a mere 304 balls. He reached the 300 run mark in just 278 balls and this is currently the fastest triple century in international cricket.
He was the only Indian to score to a triple century until Karun Nair scored one against England in 2016 in the same ground in which Sehwag scored one against South Africa. Karun Nair in the third innings of his Test career scored that triple hundred. He scored 303* from 371 balls.
Even after Karun Nair scoring a triple century, Sehwag is still the only Indian with 2 triple centuries in Tests. Here is the list of players with the most triple centuries.
Many times players came close to achieving the feat of scoring a triple hundred but failed to reach one. Sometimes they got out playing a shot and sometimes they ran out of partners and were stranded in 280s and 290s.
Here is the list of players who could have a triple century to their name.
Many Indian players have scored double centuries in Test matches. Sunil Gavaskar has 4 double centuries to his name and Rahul Dravid has 5 times scored more than 200. Virat and Sachin with 6 double centuries lead the list of most double hundreds by Indians. But only Sehwag and Nair have been able to convert the double hundreds to triple hundreds. Some Indian players came close to scoring a triple hundred in Test matches but were unable to do so. Let us look at these players.
#1 VVS Laxman
In the Australian tour of India in 2001, India had lost the first match of the series in Mumbai by 10 wickets. Australians were looking clinical and were aiming for a series victory after the first match.
In the second match at Eden Gardens, Australia posted a massive first innings score of 445 on the back of a hundred by their captain Steve Waugh. India in reply was bundled out for a score of 171 with Laxman top scoring with 59.
India trailed by 274 runs, and Australia enforced the follow-on, which meant an Indian loss was not very far away as there were more than 2 and a half days still left in the Test. India showed an improved performance with the bat but were still 254/4 at the end of the third day with Laxman batting on 109 and Dravid on 7. Almost everybody believed that Australia will win the Test match on the fourth day and take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the 3 match Test series.
What followed on the fourth day was nothing less than a miracle for India. Rahul Dravid and Laxman batted the entire day and India didn't lose any wicket. At the end of fourth day's play, Laxman was batting on 275 and Dravid on 155 and India had a lead of 315.
Going into the fifth day everyone wanted Laxman to reach 300 and become the first Indian to score a triple century. But early the next day, Laxman was caught off the bowling of McGrath on the score of 281 and Dravid was also run out on the score of 180. Laxman faced 452 balls in his brilliant knock and scored 44 boundaries. India gave a target of 384 to the Australians.
Harbhajan Singh's hattrick and Tendulkar's 3 crucial wickets helped India bowl out Australia for 212 in less than 70 overs and Indian won the match by 171 runs.
India managed to win the next match by 2 wickets and won the series 2-1.