Rohit Sharma and his constructive records of 2019

Indian opener Rohit Sharma seems untouchable at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. The 32-year-old, who has been scoring runs for fun of late, was at his usual best once against during his side’s penultimate league stage game against their Asian rivals, Bangladesh in Edgbaston.

Playing a vital knock of 104 off just 92 deliveries, on the back of which India posted a respectable 314 on the board, Sharma registered his fourth ton of the tournament and became the first Indian to reach the milestone. The right-handed batsman, who was dropped on nine by Tamim Iqbal, is now only the second batsman overall – after Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara – to achieve the feat. The Sri Lankan great achieved his milestone in 2015 when he went on to hit four consecutive hundreds.

In the midst of his innings though, he also crossed the 500-run mark in the tournament, and this made him only the second Indian to do so after Sachin Tendulkar, who achieved the record in 1996 (523) and 2003 (673). And having amazed 544 runs thus far, he tops the chart of the highest run-getters of the tournament.

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Up next in his ‘hit-list’ was his former captain, MS Dhoni. En route to scoring 104, Sharma hit seven boundaries and five sixes, and with that being done, he has surpassed Dhoni’s record of 228 sixes in 348 ODIs. The 32-year-old now has 230 maximums to his name, and he has achieved his feat in a mere 213 ODIs. The only players ahead of him in the list are Shahid Afridi (351), Chris Gayle (326) and Sanath Jayasuriya (270).

Meanwhile, his century also took his total to above 1000 runs in a calendar year for the third time in a row. Having scored 1293 runs in 2018, the 32-year-old now has 1030 runs in 2019. The only other Indians – to have scored 1000 plus runs in a calendar year are Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

On a global scale, he is only the third player to reach the landmark after Aaron Finch (Australia - 1138) and Usman Khawaja (Australia - 1067).

Sharma started his World Cup bout against South Africa by scoring an unbeaten 122, which was followed by 57 against Australia. A mammoth 140 against India’s arch-rivals Pakistan followed suit before he tore apart the English bowling order by scoring 102. And an impressive 104 against Bangladesh is just another feather to his already golden cap.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Lindsey Parnaby