Recent matches against West Indies have become the perfect platform for Indian players to create new records. India won the first Test by an innings and 272 runs, a team record for biggest win. Then a host of individual records were also created.
In the first Test at Rajkot, Prithvi Shaw became the youngest Indian to score a hundred on debut. Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav became India's second bowler to complete five-wicket hauls in all three formats. These were only a couple of feats Indian players had achieved in the match.
The second and final Test of the series at Hyderabad, starting Friday (October 12), presents another golden opportunity for Indian players to achieve new feats.
We look at some of the feats that can be achieved by Indian players in the match:
1. Virat Kohli scoring 25th Test ton
If Kohli scores a hundred, he will become the second quickest to 25 Test tons, behind Don Bradman. The Aussie great took just 68 innings to reach the mark. The current second fastest to 25 tons is Sachin Tendulkar, who took 130 innings. Kohli has so far batted 123 times.
If the Indian captain hits a hundred, he will become the quickest to reach 60 international hundreds. He has now 59 hundreds (24 in Test and 35 in ODIs) from 384 innings. Only four players have more international hundreds than him. They are Tendulkar (100), Ricky Ponting (71), Kumar Sangakkara (63) and Jacques Kallis (62). All of them took more than 400 innings to reach the mark.
2. Prithvi Shaw scoring his second century
The teenager became the youngest Indian to score a Test hundred on debut. But considering the rather lacklustre bowling attack from the Windies, Shaw can hit his second hundred in the second Test.
If Prithvi manages to do so, he will join an elite list of batsmen who have scored hundreds in the first two Test matches. Both former India captains, Mohammad Azharuddin and Saurav Ganguly, have achieved the feat.
3. Kuldeep Yadav claiming his 100th international wicket
The chinaman bowler needs three wickets to reach 100 international wickets. After making his India debut in a Test match against Australia last year, he has played 45 international matches – four Tests (seven innings)-15 wickets, 29 ODIs-58 wickets and 12 T20Is-24 wickets.
In the last seven international matches, a period after getting the drop from Indian Test team during the England tour to Asia Cup, the 23-year-old has taken 16 wickets. If he manages to reach the 100-wicket mark in the match, the feat will become one of the quickest.
4. Ravichandran Ashwin getting another Man-of-the-Series award
Ravichandran Ashwin can become the quickest to seven man-of-the-series awards. In 23 series, he has won it seven times. The current quickest is former Pakistan captain Imran Khan (28). Ashwin can also become the joint-third most man-of-the-series award winner along with Khan, Richard Hadlee in 33 and Shane Warne in 46. Sri Lankan wizard Muttiah Muralitharan has a record 11 awards from 61 series. From an equal number of series, South African great Jaques Kallis has nine awards.
5. Fourth duck for Lokesh Rahul this year
This one is not to be pursued though. Indian opener Lokesh Rahul has the joint-most ducks in the calendar year among batsmen in the top order (positions 1 to 3). Another duck, and the record will be his own. He was dismissed for 0's at Johannesburg, Southampton and Kanpur. Besides, he was out six times on a single digit score.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Lokesh Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur
West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Jahmar Hamilton, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Sherman Lewis, Keemo Paul, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach, Jomel Warrican
