Where it all started

The Indian cricket team has long been regarded as a gold mine for quality batsmen. Over the years, India has produced top-class batsmen, like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and now Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. One name that sticks out among all of these greats is Rohit “Hitman” Sharma.

Rohit Sharma made his International debut against Ireland in 2007 but was unable to bat there. With players like Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina already in the playing 11, Sharma’s chances of making the team were slim. On November 18, 2007, Rohit Sharma made his first ODI half-century against Pakistan in Jaipur.

From a mediocre middle-order batsman to an ace opener

Rohit Sharma began his career as a lower-middle-order batsman. With batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and Virat Kohli already in the Indian top order, talented batsmen like Rohit Sharma had very few balls to spare, resulting in inconsistent performances.

As in the table below you can see Rohit scored with an average of 14 and 28.57 batting at 6th and 7th position respectively. Although he had decent performance batting at 5th position that place was already booked for star Indian-allrounder Yuvraj Singh. He was given a permanent position as an opener during the CT’13 along with Dhawan in the absence of big guns like Sehwag and Gambhir. Till now he had scored 7238 runs as an opener with an astonishing average of 57.44, including 3 double centuries.

Runs and Average at different batting positions

Rohit “ Consistent” Sharma

Rohit had a shaky run at the start of his career. He was in and out of the team all the time. He only got the opportunity when some of the senior players were injured. He also experimented at various batting positions, which made it even more difficult for him to perform. It wasn’t until his performance in the 2013 Champions Trophy that he secured a permanent spot in the playing 11.

As we can see in the line chart below, Rohit had irregular performances at the start of his career, However, since he began opening for India, the “Run” curve has climbed significantly. The curve shows a drop in 2012 because he was unable to play enough matches. He becomes the highest ODI scorer in 2019 and the only batsman in the world to average more than 50 since 2013. He is also the only batsman in history to have scored at an average higher than 50 for seven consecutive years.

                         *He played 3 ODIs in 2020 due to Covid Pandemic

Rohit Sharma – Love affair with the IPL

MS Dhoni is regarded as one of the best IPL captains, having won the title three times with CSK. Rohit Sharma has surpassed MS Dhoni as the most successful captain in the IPL, with a victory rate of 60.16 percent. Rohit has been a part of five IPL championship teams and has guided Mumbai Indians to four titles. He has also scored 5480 runs in the IPL at an average of 31.5.

The graph represents the most successful IPL captains with their win percentage. As we can Rohit stands at Number 1 position with 60.16%, Dhoni at 2, and Sachin Tendulkar at 3rd. This graph also serves in resolving the debate over “who is the better captain in IPL: Rohit or Virat,” as we can see that Virat’s victory percentage is less than 50%. Now it’s worth asking who has the better overall team out of the two.

2019 – A Golden year for Sharma

Rohit Sharma amassed numerous records in 2019. Rohit Sharma broke the record for most centuries in a single World Cup, becoming the first batsman to score five centuries in a single tournament. He not only broke Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara’s record for most centuries scored in a World Cup, but he also tied Master Blaster’s record. He was also the leading scorer in the 2019 One-Day Internationals, Scoring with an average of 57. He also scored 7 centuries during that year.

As we can in the scatter plot below, he was marginal ahead of David Warner in WC’19 but way ahead of Virat Kohli in overall ODI runs scored. He scored 648 runs with an average of 81, including 4 centuries. He was always given a chance in the test team because of his excellent display of batting in ODIs.

A row represents the 2019 ODI and WC run.     Column Represents Players name

Resurrection in Test Cricket

Rohit Sharma arguably is one of the greatest white ballplayers around the world, but he was not able to replicate his performance in Test cricket. 

As we can see in the table chart below, he averaged just 28.78 in away matches whereas he averaged around 80 in India. The tag of “Home Track Bully” was taunting him. This trend of poor away performances has changed over the last few years, as Rohit made few technical changes in his batting. Although he got very few chances to play, he had improved his batting average in Overseas conditions since 2018 and the wide gap between Home and away from average had now been narrowed. 

Rohit Sharma and his liking for Australian cricket

If there’s one thing you can count on from Rohit Sharma, it’s that he won’t be swayed by the bouncers like the majority of Indian batsmen. On bouncy grounds, he enjoys playing against fast bowlers. He likes playing against fast bowlers on tough bouncy pitches. 

The graph below depicts Indian batsmen’s affinity for Australian bowlers. Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma all performed admirably against Australia. Rohit Sharma has the highest batting average (61.33), with a strike rate of 94. He has also scored 8 centuries and 1 double century against Aussies.

It is also worth noting that Rohit Sharma has three double centuries, accounting for 37% of all double centuries scored. He also holds the record for most runs scored in an ODI, 264, against Sri Lanka. He had many successful partnerships with Virat and Dhawan, which can also be examined

Rohit Sharma has a lot of cricket left in him, and it’ll be interesting to see how many records he dismantles. Until then, enjoy “The Hitman Show”.