Rohit Sharma dominates the year, Virat Kohli rules the ODI roost this decade

The year 2019 was all about Indian batting phenomenon, Rohit Sharma. It may well be the year of Ben Stokes- with his superb performances at the World Cup and that famous, Botham-esque chase in the Ashes Test at Headingley, but the Indian vice-captain can easily stake claim to the spot.

The opener has been at his prolific best in the calendar year, scoring centuries for fun, bamboozling opponents and even succeeding as India’s Test opener in that record-breaking series against South Africa.

Rohit Sharma scored 2442 runs across formats in 2019, the most by an opener in a calendar year, breaking the 22-year-old record held by Sanath Jayasuriya, with Virender Sehwag being the only other Indian in the top 5.

Read | Virender Sehwag: the man whose swag left us in awe

1490 runs of those were scored in ODIs, which made him the highest ODI run-getter in the year, 123 ahead of Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, who made 1377. However, the latter still holds the record for the most 50+ scores in a year (21), as compared to Rohit (20), both of them setting it in 2019. These records also made 2019 the most productive year in Rohit’s ODI career.

Virat Kohli- King of the decade

Virat Kohli completed his first full decade in international cricket and he completely bossed it. From the flamboyant youngster with seemingly no care about the rules, he transformed into a run-scoring, all-format beast, even taking over arguably the toughest job in world cricket-being the captain of the Indian team.

Virat Kohli this decade:

🏏 5,775 more international runs than anyone else 🤯

🏏 22 more international hundreds than anyone else 😮 pic.twitter.com/u1ZA97ARRn

— ICC (@ICC) December 24, 2019

During his innings of 85 in the final ODI against West Indies, he surpassed the legendary Jacques Kallis to become the seventh-highest run-scorer in ODIs with 11,609 and reached the milestone in 71 innings fewer than Kallis.

His haul of 1377 ODI runs in 2019, made it only the third-most prolific year in his career, showing how well he has batted this decade. If that was not enough, Kohli scored 11,125 runs in ODIs this decade, almost 3000 ahead of teammate Rohit Sharma; incidentally it also made him the only batsman to score more than 10,000 ODI runs in this span of 10 years.

Across formats, the Indian skipper scored 20,690 runs, which is also the most scored by a batsman in this decade and also made him the only one to score more than 20,000 runs in this time period. His 167 scores of 50+ were also the most made by a batsman between 2010-2019.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Paul Ellis