Against Bangladesh at Kanpur, Rohit Sharma became the first opener in the history of Test cricket to hit two sixes off the first two balls of his innings.
Rain and a wet outfield restricted the first three days of the second Test match between India and Bangladesh, at Kanpur, to 35 overs. Resuming at 107-3 on the fourth day, Bangladesh were bowled out for 233. Mominul Haque made 107 of these runs and remained unbeaten, while Jasprit Bumrah claimed 3-50.
With four and a half sessions left in the Test match, the Indian openers predictably came out all guns blazing. Yashasvi Jaiswal dispatched the third, fourth, and fifth balls of the first over, from Hasan Mahmud, to the fence.
Rohit Sharma was ready when Khaled Ahmed came to bowl at the other end. Khaled pitched on a length, but Rohit had already stepped out: he cleared the long-on boundary comfortably.
Khaled stuck to the length but altered his line, pitching slightly outside the off-stump. Rohit pulled the ball for six. In the process, he became the fourth cricketer (and first opener) to hit the first two balls he faced in a Test innings for sixes.
| Batter | Bowler | Position | Team | Opposition | Venue | Season |
| EAV ‘Foffie’ Williams | Jim Laker | No.7 | West Indies | England | Bridgetown | 1947/48 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | Nathan Lyon | No.4 | India | Australia | Chennai | 2012/13 |
| Umesh Yadav | George Linde | No.9 | India | South Africa | Ranchi | 2019/20 |
| Rohit Sharma | Khaled Ahmed | Opener | India | Bangladesh | Kanpur | 2024/25 |
Williams came to bat at 144-5 when the West Indies, after a 43-run first-innings lead, were looking for quick runs. He hit Laker for six, six, four, four off the first four balls he faced.
Tendulkar, then in the final year of his Test career, came to bat at 36-2 when India needed to chase 50. He started his innings with two sixes off Lyon.
Umesh’s blows came in the first innings of the Test, when India were looking for quick runs. He walked out at 450-7 and began with two sixes off Linde, and hit three more sixes in Linde’s next over. Linde eventually got Umesh for a 10-ball 31, which included 30 (all in sixes) in eight balls off him.
Rohit eventually fell for an 11-ball 23 with a four and three sixes. At the time of writing, India were 67-1 after 6.1 overs with Jaiswal (40) and Shubman Gill (2) at the crease.
Trivia on first-ball sixes
- George Ulyett was the first to do this, off Tom Garrett in 1881/82. Back then, a batter had to clear the stadium to get six runs.
- Aravinda de Silva (off Kapil Dev in 1985/86) and Chris Gayle (off Sohag Gazi in 2012/13) hit the first balls of the team innings for sixes. Gayle’s six, in fact, came off the first ball of the Test as well as the first ball of Gazi’s career.
- Sanath Jayasuriya (off Phil Tufnell in 1992/93) and Salman Ali Agha (off Prabath Jayasuriya in 2023) hit a six off the first ball but did not face another ball in the innings.
- Mark Craig (off Sulieman Benn in 2014) hit the first ball of his career for six.
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