Quarantine Edition, Part 4: Where does Rohit Sharma fit among all-time ODI batsmen?

Scoring runs when needed for the team

Rohit Sharma also proved his mettle by stepping up at big stages like the World Cup and Champions Trophy. During the last year’s World Cup, he became the first player in the history to smash five centuries in an ODI series/tournament. Overall, Rohit has got six centuries in ODI World Cups; the joint-most alongside Sachin Tendulkar. Sharma, however, played less than half of Sachin’s CWC appearances. Rohit also has the joint-most centuries in major ICC ODI events (World Cup and Champions Trophy).

Rohit Sharma smashed as many as seven centuries in 27 matches he played across the two tournaments. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly also scored 7 tons apiece but played 32 and 58 matches respectively. But Rohit receives criticism for not producing big knocks when mattered most. He did score centuries in CWC Quarters and CT semi-final, but both came against lower-ranked Bangladesh team. However, it is not fair to account someone’s career over 5-10% of career matches.

In the earlier decades, the ODI tournaments used to be regular but the same has not happened ever since Rohit’s debut in 2007. Till date, he has got to bat in only 15 ODI knockout matches where his average is little over 40. Not all prolific run-getters have got even a decent record when it comes to knockouts ever since Rohit’s ODI debut. The likes of Virat Kohli and Hashim Amla average only 28.83 and 17 in ODI knockouts. However, Kohli has made it up for his failures with special knocks during the Asia Cup and CB series.

Rohit Sharma too produced an important knock during the 2008 CB series final batting along with Tendulkar and a fifty during the 2013 Tri-series which was famous for Dhoni’s exploits in the last over. Sharma, however, has an impressive record in bilateral series deciders. His 707 runs across 12 innings are the most by any player in the bilateral ODI series deciders. Rohit averages 58.92 in those matches that include his maiden ODI double ton.