“Double hundred is a special number”: Rohit Sharma subtly praises Mohammed Shami for picking 200 Test wickets for India during IND vs SA Centurion Test

Rohit Sharma subtly praises Mohammed Shami after latter picks second consecutive five-wicket haul versus South Africa on their home turf.

During the third day of the ongoing India versus South Africa first Test match at SuperSport Park in Centurion, India’s speedster Mohammed Shami became the third fastest Indian pacer to pick up 200 Test wickets getting placed below the likes of Javagal Srinath and Kapil Dev.

Courtesy his sixth five-for in Tests, India bundled up South Africa for 197 in their first innings to hand the batters a handy 130-run lead with two more days to go in the ongoing Boxing Day Test.

Post dismissing the Proteas pacer Kagiso Rabada during the 62nd Over of the innings, Shami completed his double of a five-for as well as 200 Test wickets in only his 55th Test match for India.

The 31-year-old has thus, with the Rabada wicket, taken the fewest balls (9896) to 200 Test wickets for India, and is ahead of the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin (10248), Kapil Dev (11066), and Ravindra Jadeja (11989) to the milestone.

Rohit Sharma subtly praises Mohammed Shami

Taking note of a rare milestone for an Indian pacer, Team India’s limited Overs skipper Rohit Sharma took to his social media handle to congratulate Shami in a subtle manner with reference to the magical number ‘200’.

Stressing on the number ‘200’ which explicitly refers to Sharma’s own rare record of three ODI double centuries for India, Rohit couldn’t have come up with a better way to congratulate the 31-year-old on his massive feat.

Rohit Sharma had scripted history on December 13, 2017 by becoming the only cricketer in the world to smash a total of three double centuries in One-Day Internationals.

Rohit’s maiden double century came against Australia at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru when he scored 209 off 158 deliveries, with 12 fours and 16 sixes. Then, at the Eden Gardens, he slammed his second double century against the West Indies, scoring 264 of 173 deliveries. The third double ton came against Sri Lanka on 13 December, 2017.

As far as the ongoing Test match is concerned, Team India suffered a major collapse during the first session of Day 3, having been able to add mere 55 runs to their overnight score (on Day 1) of 272/3 to get bundled up for 327.

In reply, the Proteas batting line-up, courtesy a five-wicket haul by Mohammed Shami, got skittled for a mere 197 in 62.3 Overs to hand India a 130-run lead. At Stumps on Day 3, India, having lost Mayank Agarwal (4) were ahead of South Africa by 146 runs with the scorecard reading 16/1 after 6 Overs in their second innings.