Rohit Sharma and the art of construction and acceleration in ODI cricket

Two centuries in 81 innings with 1978 runs at an average of mere 30.43 and numerous questions on why he was back and if he deserved a place in the team. This was Rohit Sharma’s situation before he opened the innings in a crucial ODI game against England at the PCA Stadium in Mohali in January 2013 with the out of form openers in the squad. Nearly five years after that game, Rohit walked out to open the innings at the same venue in his 2nd ODI game as Indian captain and scored an unbeaten 208 to square the series.

Now the 30-year-old has 6417 runs, 16 hundreds including three double tons in this format and is the regular vice-captain of India’s limited-overs teams. The way Rohit succeeded in his career was similar to his way he builds his batting innings; starting off slowly and taking off once he gets his eye in which is his art of pacing an innings and needless to say he has been quite successful in doing that. In the 86 innings since 2013, Rohit aggregates 4439 which is nearly 2.25 times the runs he scored in his first 81 innings.

As an opener since 2013, Rohit Sharma has scored 22 fifties and 14 hundreds in 85 outings. Till he reaches the 50-run milestone, Rohit scores his runs at an S/R of 76.93 but it goes up to 105.28 for his 2nd fifty. His cumulative S/R might be only 83.54 till he reaches the hundred but once he gets to the triple-digit score, he strikes at an imperative rate of 183.66. In his five 150+ scores in this format, Rohit scored his runs at a ridiculous S/R of 261.05 after completing his 150.

“Once you get past 100, it’s about not making a mistake and getting out,” Rohit Sharma said after his 3rd ODI double ton. He made a name for himself for scoring big hundreds in this format and his numbers don’t lie. He has an average score of 148.5 among the knocks where he scored an ODI hundred which is the highest for any player with more than five tons.

David Warner comes next to Rohit with an average score of 135.93 while scoring an ODI hundred but is well behind the right-hander’s average. The Indian opener’s average score goes up to 154.64 taking only the 14 tons as an opener in consideration. No other opener with five centuries in ODI history has an average score of 140 while scoring an ODI ton.

(Stats as on December 13, 2017)

(Note: Average score is different from batting average. This doesn’t include their not outs while scoring hundreds)