Rohit Sharma and his journey in International cricket

Image Credits - Cricket Australia

          Rohit Sharma, the name does not require any introduction. He is one of the most talked-about cricketers of this generation. From the past 7 years, he has continuously fascinated us with his batting. His elegant strokeplay adds an extra value to his talent. He is one of those few batsmen who hit sixes for fun. On his day he can destroy any bowling attack single-handedly. Today is the birthday of the "hitman" of Indian cricket. Let's celebrate that by going down the memory lane and look back at his career.

The beginning of his journey

         Mumbai has been a constant source of World's top-rated cricketers. Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar are the biggest examples of it. Rohit also belongs from Mumbai only. He was born on 30th April, 1987 in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra. But due to the poor financial condition of his family, he used to live with his uncles, grandparents.
          Rohit is a naturally gifted batsman. But the interesting fact is that when started playing cricket he used to play as a spinner. In the year 1999, he joined a cricket camp. There he met Dinesh Lad, his coach. Dinesh identified Rohit being much better as a batsman than an off-spinner. So he promoted Rohit from 8th position to the opening slot. He scored a century for his school in the very first match that he played as an opener. From there on he became a known face in the cricket fraternity.

Rohit Sharma's U-19 days

Image Credits - KreedOn

          His performance in school cricket was good enough to give him the opportunity of playing U-19 world cup, 2006. At that time U-19 category was not that much popular among cricket lovers. That is why Rohit's performance at the U-19 level is sometimes neglected. But in that tournament, he scored 205 runs with an average of 41 and 3 50+ scores.

Arrival in Domestic cricket

          He made his List A debut for West zone on 25th Feb, 2006 in Deodhar Trophy. In his debut match, he scored 31* in 47 balls batting at 8th position. His name came into limelight when he scored 142* in 123 balls against North Zone playing at no.3. He debuted in the Ranji Trophy in the 2006-07 edition and on his debut match against Bengal he managed to score 21 runs only. He scored 95 in the second innings against Hyderabad. But his best was yet to come. In the very next match against Gujrat, he played an excellent knock of 205 runs. From that match, people started appreciating his talent. Mumbai went on winning the 2006-07 season of Ranji trophy.
In 2008-09 edition Rohit scored centuries in both the innings of the final against Uttar Pradesh. He scored 141 in the first innings and a quickfire 108 in the second innings. Again in 2009-10 season of Ranji Trophy, he scored 309* against Gujrat.

International Career of Rohit Sharma

          His career as a player of Indian national cricket team started from 23rd June 2007 when he represented India against Ireland as a middle-order batsman. With his performance in the domestic circuit, He got selected the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. He debuted against England on 19th Sept, 2007. His performance was moderate in that world cup. He played a match-winning innings of 50* against South Africa in the quarter-finals. But Initial few years of his career was very tough. He never performed consistently. That is why he failed to secure his position in the team.
But everything changed after 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. In that tournament, Rohit was moved up the order. MS Dhoni tried Rohit as an opener with Sikhar Dhawan. That move was proven to be a masterstroke as Rohit went on scoring tons of runs throughout that tournament. From then, there was no look back. Since then he has gifted many wonderful innings.

Image credits - Cricwizz

          India was playing Australia in Bangalore in 2013. In the last match of the series, Rohit Sharma hit 209 from 158 deliveries. He hit 12 fours and 16 sixes to reach that score. That day world cricket witnessed his ability to hit sixes. In the very next year, the made a mammoth score of 264 against Sri Lanka in Kolkata with 33 boundaries and 9 over boundaries. He scored another double ton against Sri Lanka in the year 2017. In 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup he was in the form of his life. He scored 648 runs with 5 centuries in that tournament.
          Seven years after his International debut he was selected in the Test squad for the first time. We went on scoring 2 consecutive centuries in his first two matches. Till now Rohit has scored 6 test centuries, 29 ODI centuries and 4 T20I centuries.

Record as Captain of the Indian team

           He captained India for the first time in the year  2017 when Virat Kohli was rested for an upcoming series against South Africa. He led India in 10 ODI matches and 19 T20I matches. Under his leadership India won the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup and the 2018 Nidahas Trophy.
          Till date, He has scored a total of 9115 ODI runs with an average of 49.3. He has scored 2773 T20I runs and 2143 Test runs as well. The run-scoring pattern clearly states that Rohit is more a limited-overs cricketer than a test cricketer. But in recent times, he is establishing himself as a Test cricketer as well. But from a point of view of a fan, we enjoy his batting, the format does not matter.

IPL career of Rohit Sharma

Image credit - NDTV sports

          Rohit Sharma played for Deccan Chargers (DC) for the first three seasons of the IPL. In the second season, DC won the title. Rohit was a youngster at that time and there were stalwarts like Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs in that team. So naturally, his performances were not given that much importance. In 2011 he then changed his team to Mumbai Indians(MI). Again his IPL career took a complete turn in 2013 when he got the captainship of MI. In his first year of captaincy, MI went on to win the title for the first time. Since then Mumbai has won the title every alternate year making him the most successful captain of IPL. He played a total of 188 matches in IPL out of which 104 matches as captain. He has scored 4898 runs till now with a strike rate of 130.82. 

Interesting facts related to Rohit Sharma

• He can speak Telegu because his mother is from Vizag.
• He is one of those six players who has scored centuries in both the innings of Ranji Trophy final.
• He debuted in test format after 7 years of debuting in International Cricket.
• He is the only batsman two score three double tons in ODI cricket.
• He has scored 6 centuries in a world cup which is a record.
• He has taken a hat-trick in IPL for Deccan Chargers against Mumbai Indians.
• After Mumbai won their first IPL title in 2013, they continued to win IPL in every Odd year.

Happy Birthday Rohit "Hitman" Sharma.

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