One of the top white-ball batters of the current age is Rohit Sharma, the India captain. But when he first began this career, he was not as scary. In reality, over the first six years of his ODI career, he only scored two hundred. When MS Dhoni, the captain at the time, elevated him to an opener in 2013, his career underwent a pivotal change. He seized the chance and set out on his quest to grow into a white-ball behemoth. In the same series, Rohit became the third Indian batsman after Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar to reach a double century in an ODI after scoring a hundred against Jaipur. As of right now, the elegant right-handed batsman needs just one more century to tie the late Australia skipper Ricky Ponting for the most hundreds in the annals of 50-over cricket.
Currently, in 237 games, Rohit has scored 29 hundred and 9537 runs at an average of about 49. Ponting, on the other hand, concluded with 13704 runs and 30 centuries in 375 games, scoring at a 42-run average. Is it possible to draw comparisons between Ponting and Rohit? Gautam Gambhir, a former India opener, agrees and rates the Indian captain higher than the legendary Australian batsman.
“The surprising fact is that in the last four or five years he has gotten this many hundreds. Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent. He got about 20 hundred in the last five-six-seven years.”
In regards to Rohit’s century graph, Gambhir is correct. In fact, between 2017 and 2020, just five years, Rohit scored 19 ODI hundreds. He last scored a century against Australia in January 2020. He has been one century short of Ponting’s total for almost three years.
Gambhir’s abrupt comparison of Rohit to Ponting was of such a magnitude that colleague panelist and former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was caught away.
“You missed that,” Manjrekar said to attract the host’s attention.
“No, he is a better player than Ricky Ponting. because Ricky has got a sh** record in the subcontinent,” Gambhir added.
How has Ponting performed in the subcontinent thus far? There isn’t much of a difference on average. In ODI matches played in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, the former Australia No. 3 averages 41. But his centuries column has a significant distinction. Ponting only played six of his thirty centuries in the subcontinent.
In contrast, Rohit’s century is evenly spaced out. He has 13 ODI hundreds outside of the subcontinent and an average of 47, just one behind his career average.
