Opener Rohit Sharma on Saturday brought up his maiden overseas century in Test cricket, and his eighth overall, as the Indian batsmen continued to dominate on the third day of the ongoing fourth Test against England at the Oval, London.

After getting to the ninties, Sharma scored a boundary off James Anderson to reach 94 and brought up a memorable century in style with a six off Moeen Ali. The 34-year-old danced down the track and hoisted the ball over the long-on boundary for a maximum, bringing up his first ton of the series in his eighth innings. 

Sharma, who made his Test debut vs West Indies at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in November 2013, took off his helmet and celebrated as the Indian dressing room – led by a pumped up captain Virat Kohli – erupted in joy as he got to the landmark.  

The Nagpur-born batsman crossed a number of other landmarks in his innings today. He crossed the 11,000 runs-mark in international cricket as an opener, becoming the second batsman to reach the landmark after Sachin Tendulkar. Sharma reached the landmark in his 246th innings, with the ‘Master Blaster’ having brought up 11,000 runs in just 214 innings. 

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Sharma also reached 3,000 runs in Test cricket in his 74th innings, averaging 47.60 in the longest format. 

Sharma, who is also currently the highest-rated Indian batsman in Test cricket, has scored over 1,000 international runs in the year 2021. 

The knock sees Sharma become the second-highest run-scorer of the series so far, having scored 344 runs from eight innings at an average of 57.33 so far. Only England captain Joe Root has scored more runs – 538 from six innings at an average of 105.60.