India against Australia, fourth Test: On Saturday, December 28, young Indian batting all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy joined his hero Virat Kohli in an elite group of Indian hitters. The 21-year-old right-handed hitter from Andhra Pradesh made history by making his first Test century in India’s current Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Sunrisers Hyderabad player, who is now playing his fourth Test for India, became the sixth Indian batsman to smash a century at the MCG on Boxing Day.

Former world number one Test batsman and famous opener Virender Sehwag became the first Indian to achieve a century in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. Sehwag scored 195 runs from 225 balls for the Sourav Ganguly-led team in 2003. Virat scored 169 runs in the 2014 Boxing Day Test, which was contested at the same venue. In the game, Ajinkya Rahane too scored 147 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara reached the elite list in 2018 after hitting 106 runs off 319 balls for Virat Kohli and co. Rahane struck a century in India’s final Boxing Day Test (December 2020) at the MCG. He is the only Indian hitter to have scored two century in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne’s renowned venue.

Reddy, who reached three figures with a four on the 171st ball he faced on Saturday, is the tenth Indian hitter to make a century in the Boxing Day Test. Dilip Vengsarkar was the first Indian to achieve a century in a Test match that began the day after Christmas. He was succeeded by Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, Kohli, Rahane, Pujara, and KL Rahul.