Rishabh Pant - 89*
in Brisbane, 2021

India won by three wickets, and the
series 2-1

All the things that didn’t make sense on this tour - India all out for 36, their three jillion injuries, the hassle of cricket in quarantine - found meaning when Rishabh Pant began to play the innings of a lifetime. He was 23 and he helped obliterate a record that had stood for way longer than he’d been alive.

Australia’s undefeated streak in Brisbane was 32 years old when it was finally laid to rest. “This is one of the biggest things in my life right now,” Pant said after a performance that proved just how dangerous a batter he could be when he adopts even the smallest bit of restraint.

Chasing 328 at the Gabba - 324 on the final day - India still needed 161 runs with about 43 overs to go when Pant walked in at No. 5. He got going, and kept going, even as wickets fell and the overs ticked by. Eventually, with only minutes left on the clock, he lashed Josh Hazlewood down the ground to accomplish one of the greatest series wins in Test history.

Virat Kohli - 115 & 141 in Adelaide, 2014

India lost by 48 runs

In a career full of milestones, Virat Kohli has a very special place in his heart for these two hundreds. He’s made that plain on every subsequent trip to Adelaide.

The runs that he made, the way he made them, getting hit on the head by a Mitchell Johnson bouncer early and brushing off the Australians who came up to him to ask him if he was okay just so he wouldn’t have to break out of that bubble he needs to be in to score those big runs, and the path that he put his team on, saying they will not be going for the draw - all played a big role in helping him decide what kind of cricketer and captain he wanted to be.

His 114 in the first innings on captaincy debut kept India in the game after conceding 517, and his 141 in the second gave India hope that as long as Kohli was batting, there was a chance of pulling off an outrageous chase of 364. That performance made Kohli the first visiting batter since 1961 to score two centuries in a Test in Australia, and no once has done it since.