Rohit Sharma has had a staggering, lossless start to his full-time India captaincy career. Cleansweeps in limited-overs series against New Zealand, West Indies, and Sri Lanka was followed by a thumping win in his first Test as captain, in Mohali over Dimuth Karunaratne’s side.
Now, moving into the second Test – a pink-ball day-night contest – in Bangalore, Rohit Sharma is set to add another feather to his cap that will put him in the elite list of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid with Virat Kohli already being in his catalogue: Taking the field in Bangalore, Rohit will become only the ninth Indian player to feature in 400 international matches!
Before Rohit Sharma, the other Indian cricketers to have appeared in 400 matches – including for Asia XI, World XI – are Sachin Tendulkar (664 matches), MS Dhoni (538), Rahul Dravid (509), Virat Kohli (457), Mohammad Azharuddin (433), Sourav Ganguly (424), Anil Kumble (403) and Yuvraj Singh (402). Already a legend in Indian cricket, entering this listing will bolster the opener’s stature as a cricketer.
Rohit Sharma has so far played 44 Tests, 230 ODIs, and 125 T20Is and amassed over 15000 runs across all formats. He’s the only batsman with three double centuries in ODIs, and hold the record for most tons in a single ODI World Cup, when he scored 5 hundreds in the 2019 World Cup.
An already established limited-overs batter, Rohit Sharma had, however, struggled to keep his place in the Test eleven with injuries and lack of runs away from home hurting his case. However, in 2019 he found a fresh wave in his Test career when he was asked to open in the longest format as well.
Sharma grabbed the opportunities against South Africa at home followed by another prolific series against England at home. He then silenced his detractors by being India’s best batsman on the England tour last year. From being not in first-eleven four years ago, to now leading the Test side, Sharma has had a dream run.
