Rohit Sharma 5 sixes away from breaking Virender Sehwag's massive record in IND vs NZ 2024 Test series
Team India's Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma had a poor series with the willow against Bangladesh recently. While the hosts thumped the Bangla Tigers 2-0, the opening batter looked out of sorts with the bat in hand, registering scores of six and five in Chennai and 23 and eight in Kanpur.
Rohit has been working hard in the nets ahead of India's next challenge against New Zealand. Team India are all set to take on the Kiwis in a three-match home series. The first Test will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru from October 16 to October 20.
As captain, Rohit will be keen to make a significant impact with the willow as India look to push for a place in the 2025 World Test Championship (WTC) final. The 37-year-old is also on the verge of breaking a huge record in the Test series against New Zealand. He needs five maximums to become the top six-hitter for India in Test cricket. The record currently stands in the name of Virender Sehwag.
Sehwag represented India in 104 Tests (180 innings) in which he cleared the boundary as many as 91 times. As for Rohit, he has so far featured in 61 Test matches (105 innings) and has smacked 87 sixes.
England's captain Ben Stokes (131) is the all-time leading six-hitter in Test cricket.
Country-wise breakdown of Rohit's sixes in Test cricket
Rohit has slammed most sixes against South Africa in the Test format. In 11 Tests against the Proteas, he has struck 22 maximums. The right-handed batter's career-best Test score of 212 was also registered against South Africa in Ranchi in October 2019 and featured six sixes.
The 37-year-old has slammed 16 sixes each against Australia and England from 12 and 14 Test matches respectively and 14 versus the West Indies from just six games. Against Sri Lanka, he has nine sixes from seven Test matches. Further, the elegant batter has struck six sixes against New Zealand in as many matches and four against Bangladesh in five games.
Incidentally, Rohit already holds the record for having slammed the most number of sixes in international cricket. In 485 matches (513 innings), he has 623 maximums to his name. Apart from 87 sixes in Tests, Rohit has struck 331 sixes in ODIs and 205 in the T20I format.