On Tuesday, during the super-4 round match in the 2023 Asia Cup against Sri Lanka in Colombo, the Indian captain Rohit Sharma achieved a significant milestone in ODI cricket. He became the sixth Indian batsman and the fifteenth overall to surpass the 10,000-run mark with an impressive innings of 53 runs from 48 balls.
Rohit Sharma’s cricketing journey had a poor and slow start and got many challenges before establishing him as the opener of the Team India. He was the fourth slowest Indian batsman to reach the milestone of 2000 ODI runs. However, his transformation has been remarkable, and he now holds the distinction of becoming the second-fastest player to achieve 10,000 runs in ODIs.
The credit for the huge transformation in Rohit Sharma’s career can be given to one person and that is former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni consistently supported him even after the failure with his bat in the early phase of Rohit’s career. However, it was in the 2013 Champions Trophy that Dhoni’s decision to have Rohit open the batting proved to be the game-changer for him.
Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has now praised MS Dhoni for giving a chance to Rohit to open the innings for India. While talking to Star Sports, Gambhir said,”Scoring 10,000 runs was not easy for him. Saw many ups and downs. Having seen that phase, Rohit, as a captain, will back youngsters who go through a difficult period. Rohit Sharma is Rohit Sharma today because of MS Dhoni.”
Gambhir also remembered the time when Rohit Sharma played against Gautam Gambhir’s team in a domestic match.
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“Rohit was playing against my team in a domestic match and my team’s score was 350. Rohit came at no.5 and scored 130 runs, guiding his team to victory from precarious circumstances. I asked Wasim Jaffer, who is this guy, from that day I knew that this guy is special,” Gambhir added.
Fastest to 10,000 ODI runs (by innings):
205 – Virat Kohli
241 – Rohit Sharma
259 – Sachin Tendulkar
263 – Sourav Ganguly
266 – Ricky Ponting
