India vs New Zealand: As Rohit Sharma gears up for his 200th ODI, a look at his astronomical 50-over numbers

Indian opener Rohit Sharma is set to play his 200th One-Day International (ODI) against New Zealand in Hamilton on Thursday. As years passed by, he shifted from a talented under-achieved middle-order batsman to a consistent opener, and as numbers suggest, it has been an incredible journey so far for the Mumbaikar in the ODIs. Rohit averages 50-plus in ODIs since 2013 each year, whereas before that, his average crossed 40 in only one calendar year — 2011. His batting average in ODI cricket till the end of 2012 was 30.43 while since 2013, he scores runs at an average of 60.01 in the 50-over format. Rohit Sharma’s batting average as an opener in ODI cricket is 58.32 which is the highest for any player who has scored at least 1,500 runs as an opener in ODIs. He has amassed 5832 runs from 114 ODI innings as an opener in his career. [caption id=“attachment_5994071” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Rohit Sharma’s batting average has taken a giant leap in past six years.[/caption] He has hit 22 centuries for India in his ODI career which is the joint third most for any Indian player alongside Sourav Ganguly. Only Sachin Tendulkar (49) and Virat Kohli (39) are ahead of him in that list. Interestingly, in his first six years of ODI career, he smashed only two tons while since 2013, he has hit 20 tons in ODI cricket, which is only bettered by his captain Virat Kohli (26) during the same time period. Rohit Sharma has hit seven 150-plus scores in ODI cricket which is the most by any player. Moreover, he is the only player to score three double centuries in ODI cricket. No other player has hit more than one. He scored 264 runs against Sri Lanka at Kolkata in 2014 which is the highest individual score in an ODI innings. [caption id=“attachment_5994091” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Rohit’s big-hitting abilities make him one of the most dreaded limited-overs’ batsman of the modern times. AP[/caption] He is a six-hitting machine as no Indian player has hit more sixes than him in ODIs. Currently, he has hit 215 sixes in ODIs which is the joint most for an Indian player in ODIs alongside MS Dhoni. Rohit Sharma hit 33 fours during his knock of 264 runs against Sri Lanka at Kolkata in 2014 which is the most by any player in an ODI innings. He hit 16 sixes against Australia in Bangalore in 2013 during his knock of 209 runs which is the joint most for any player in an ODI innings alongside AB de Villiers (against West Indies at Johannesburg in 2015) and Chris Gayle (against Zimbabwe at Canberra in 2015). Rohit Sharma is one of the five players to have hit 100-plus sixes in ODI cricket in a country. He has hit 100 sixes in India in ODIs so far from 54 matches. The other four players are Brendon McCullum (126 in New Zealand), MS Dhoni (121 in India), Martin Guptill (108 in New Zealand) and Chris Gayle (103 in West Indies). He holds the record of hitting the third most number of sixes in a calendar year in ODIs. He hit 46 sixes from 21 matches in 2017. He has hit 66 sixes against Australia in ODIs from 31 matches which is the most for a player against an opposition in ODIs. Shahid Afridi is at the second place in the list with 63 sixes against Sri Lanka from 72 matches. He has hit 22 sixes at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, in ODIs from three matches which is the second highest for an Indian player at a venue in ODIs, bettered only by Sachin Tendulkar who hit 30 sixes from 42 ODIs at Sharjah Cricket Stadium in his career. Rohit Sharma has scored a ton in each of the ODI series/tournament (10) that he has played since ICC Champions Trophy 2017 in England which is the longest such sequence for a player. He missed out on scoring a ton in the second and third ODI against New Zealand in this series as he was dismissed for 87 and 62 runs respectively. Rohit will lead in the last two ODIs against New Zealand in the absence of Virat Kohli. His record as a captain is astonishing. He has scored 534 runs from eight matches at an average of 106.8 in ODI cricket.