Data check: When Virender Sehwag’s first triple-century got India entry into an elite club

On March 29, 2004, India entered an elite club thanks to Virender Sehwag. That was the day the right-hander became the first Indian to score a triple-century in international cricket as he took apart the Pakistani bowling attack in the Multan Test.

India had waited a long time to get their first triple-centurion. It had taken them 72 years of Test cricket, to be precise, to achieve the feat. Sehwag was the 15th player to get to the landmark and for fans of Indian cricket, it came as no surprise that it was he who broke the duck.

India has produced a number of batting icons – Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, and many more – but it can be argued that Sehwag has been the biggest game-changer in the longest format.

With his attacking play at the top of the order, Sehwag set up many Test victories and in a way, changed India’s approach towards batting in Test cricket. And it wasn’t just his strike-rate that stood out. Sehwag had an appetite for big scores. In the list of top ten highest scores by Indians in Tests, his name features as many as four times.

Sehwag is one of the two Indians to have a triple-century to his name, and he managed to achieve the feat twice. Exactly four years after the Multan Test, he scored 319 runs against South Africa in Chennai to register his highest score.

As incredible as Sehwag’s accomplishments are, his scores don’t rank at the top when it comes to the overall list. That, of course, is headed by West Indies’ Brian Lara for playing that iconic knock of 400 not out against England in 2004.

Lara’s 400, his 375 against the same opposition in 1994, and Garfield Sobers’ 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958 make West Indies the most featured team in the list of the top ten highest individual scores in Test cricket.

There have been a total of 31 triple-tons hit in the history of Test cricket, with players from eight countries featuring on the list. A total of 27 players have managed to achieve this feat, with Sehwag, Lara, Chris Gayle and Don Bradman being the only ones to get there twice.

Australia have seven triple-centurions, which is the most for any team. England, with five, are second on this list.

While triple-centuries are surely rare to see, they, by no means, are new to the game. The first triple ever hit was by England’s Andrew Sandham against West Indies in 1930. Just a little over three months after that, Australia’s Bradman joined the list with a 334 against England.

The next two triple-centuries came in 1958 thanks to Sobers and Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad. After that, though, came the biggest gap between two international triple-tons. In 1997, 39 years later, Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya ended the wait with a 340 against India.

The latest entrant to the 300-run club is New Zealand, who got there with the help of Brendon McCullum’s 302 against India in 2014.

It is South Africa who took the longest time to get their first triple-centurion. The Proteas started playing the longest format in 1889 but entered the 300-run club only in 2012 (this, of course, included the break due to the apartheid period). Second on this list is New Zealand, who took 84 years to get their first triple-centurion.

India rank high on this list. They played their first Test in 1932 but it took them 72 years to get to the milestone. The team that was the quickest to get there was Pakistan, who took just six years of international cricket to get their first triple-centurion.

All statistics courtesy ESPNcricinfo