It was written in the stars, perhaps.

Starting a new life in Test cricket as an opener, Rohit Sharma hit an unbeaten century in his new role as India comfortably reached 202 for no loss before rain washed out the final session of the first day of their opening Test against South Africa in Vishakapatnam on Tuesday.

The Mumbaikar smashed an unbeaten 115 off 174 balls, while Mayank Agarwal too was on course for a century, reaching 84 at stumps. Rohit got to his fifty before lunch, shifted gears and was particularly harsh on the spinners. He hammered offie Danie Piedt for successive sixes over deep midwicket to get into the nineties before completing his fourth Test ton with a single off debutant spinner Senuran Muthusamy.

The entire dressing room including skipper Virat Kohli stood up to laud Rohit’s feat. His unconquered innings comprised 12 fours and five sixes.

“He has worked so hard and if he gets an opportunity, I am sure he will do well,” Ajinkya Rahane had said of Rohit. “We all know the quality he has. He is simply special.”

And the limited-overs vice captain lived up to the words of the Test vice captain by scoring an entertaining century on the opening day after Virat Kohli won the toss.

The new experiment had a less than auspicious start, however – when he was dismissed for a duck on the second ball he faced in a practice game against the South Africans. But it proved to be the calm before an eventual storm on the first day of the three-match series as Rohit danced down the track to spinners with ridiculous ease.

Virat Kohli backed Rohit on the eve of the match, assuring him enough opportunities.

“If he does that (succeed in the opening role), then our batting order at the top becomes more lethal. It is difficult to have a player like that to not start every time,” said Kohli, adding “if he comes into his own then the whole batting order looks a completely different batting order anywhere in the world.”

The century from Rohit set Twitter abuzz (even on a day where Twitter barely worked):