Stats: Top 10 visiting batsmen with most centuries in India

England Captain Alastair Cook scored his 30th Test hundred on the fifth day of the opening Test against India in Rajkot as the contest headed towards a draw and England piled on the runs. With this century, the total number of centurions in the match has now gone up to five, proving the fact the pitch laid out for the opening Test was a sort flatbed where the one who applies himself can go on to rake in a good amount of runs.

This century, a ‘masterchef’ of an innings, as Ravi Shastri described, was also his Cook’ fifth Test hundred against India. And, the special is that all the five centuries have come in India. Today’s fluent knock has also helped Cook jump ahead of Hashim Amla to become the highest century maker in India. Cook (9) also required one match less than Amla (10) achieved this feat. Former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd and Everton Weekes also have with 4 centuries each.

Others who are in the top ten are Ken Barrington (England), Michael Clarke (Australia), Andy Flower, (Zimbabwe) Gordon Greenidge (West Indies), Neil Harvey (Australia) and Jacques Kallis (South Africa). All of them have three centuries each.

He’s got over 1862 runs against India in 21 matches, excluding the ongoing fixture, at an average of over 56. Even more interesting is the fact that, out of all those runs, 993 runs have come on Indian soil. The left-hander, who got out for 130 in the second innings, entered the elite gang of players who have hit 1000 runs or more against India in India.