As the race for the finale to the World test Championship is heating up, Rohit Sharma achieved an incredible feat that was achieved by Sachin Tendulkar in the format’s shorter and younger sibling, One Day cricket.
As India’s struggle to surpass the might of the English bowlers continue, the man who has managed to stay in the middle and play to his heart’s content, warily navigating through the mazes led by James Anderson and Jack Leach, became the first opener to cross the milestone of 1000 runs in Test cricket.
Despite being questioned vehemently for his impatient batting stance in the longer format of the game, he has time and time again managed to silence his critiques with the boldest statements with his bat.
The cricketing God of India achieved the same feat in the One Day World Cup as an opener. The little master ended his World Cup career being the highest scorer of the fray with 2278 runs from 45 games that he went on to play at the grandest stage of all.
Rohit Sharma also became the fastest Asian to reach the 1000-run mark in his Test career, overcoming his team-mate Mayank Agarwal who took 19 innings to achieve this milestone. He also moved up to the third spot in the all-time list of the fastest openers to reach this milestone, rubbing shoulders with Graeme Smith, Herbert Sutcliffe and English legend, Len Hutton.
The record of the fastest 1000 as an opener in the World Test Championship was held by India’s vice-captain, Ajinkya Rahane who took 15 innings to achieve the feat.
In fact, Rahane was the only Indian with 1000 runs in World Test Championship until Rohit joined this elite club and became the fastest Indian opener to achieve this feat in World Test Championship.
The other cricketers who are already a part of this elite list are Marnus Labuschange with 1675 runs, Steven Smith with 1341 runs and the English duo of Joe Root (1630 runs) and Ben Stokes with 1301 runs.
