Jaiswal and Sharma amidst run-riot in Dominica (Twitter)
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal have achieved a major record in Indian Test history. The two cricketers piled up runs in heap across the two Tests in West Indies, even though the series marked the first set of matches for Jaiswal in international cricket.
Making his debut in the first Test of the series in Dominica earlier in July, the youngster was tasked to open the innings by captain Sharma, after regular opener Shubman Gill requested a demotion in the batting order.
The move paid rich dividends for Team India as both Jaiswal and Sharma formed a monumental 229-run opening stand. The record partnership set up an innings win for the visitors, and the duo backed up their effort with two more prolific stands in the second Test in Port of Spain.
In doing so, both openers have soared past Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar and team’s current coach Rahul Dravid in a major landmark for India in Tests.
Sharma, Jaiswal stock up 466 runs to create new record
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal put up 229 runs for the first wicket in Dominica to set up an innings win for India earlier in the series. The two cricketers shared another 139 runs together as openers in the first innings of the subsequent series-decider, and backed up their effort with a 98-run blitzkrieg in team’s second innings.
Altogether, both openers finished the series with 466 runs for the first wicket, thus registering an all-time record of scoring most runs as an opening pair in an away Test assignment for India.
With 459 runs, Virender Sehwag shared the previous record with former opener Aakash Chopra, during the high-scoring four-match series in Australia back in 2003-04.
Notably, Sehwag was involved in another prolific series as an opener, albeit with Rahul Dravid in Pakistan in 2006. In the series, the two cricketers registered 457 runs together as an opening pair.
Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan added 453 runs together as openers during the 1979 English summer, while Sehwag together with Gautam Gambhir piled up 431 runs during India’s 2008 Test tour of Sri Lanka.
As one can expect, both Jaiswal and Sharma have also emerged as the top two leading run-getters for India in the series, with 266 and 240 runs respectively to their credit.
 "Aakash Saini")
