Rohit Sharma is considered one of the most talented batsmen in the world among current players. He is a opening batsman in limited-overs cricket and bats in the middle-order in Tests. He is the vice-captain of India in limited-overs cricket.
He is the only cricketer to score a double-hundred more than once in ODIs, where he made three double-centuries. He was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year in January 2020 by International Cricket Council (ICC).
Rohi t Sharma was born in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra. His father name is Gurunath Sharma who worked as a caretaker for a transport firm. His mother Purnima Sharma is from Vishakapatnam Andhra Pradesh.
Sharma debuted into domestic cricket in March 2005 in Deodhar Trophy against central zone where he played for west zone.
He played in Ranji Trophy for the first time in 2006-07 season for Mumbai and made 205 runs in his debut match itself. He has played his entire first-class cricket for Mumbai.
Rohit Sharma made his international debut in an ODI against Ireland in 2007. But he came into limelight in 2007 T20 world cup match against hosts South Africa. Rohit was called into the team at the last minute when in-form all-rounder Yuvraj Singh was injured for the match.
In the match India was found struggling against the South African bowlers as its score was 66/4.Rohit Sharma then walked into the ground and made a half-century against world class bowlers like Shaun Pollock and Ntini.
Though he was just 20-year-old and relatively a new-comer he showed tremendous skill to steer India to a respectable total and remained until the end.
India successfully defended the score and sent South Africa packing from the tournament in their own country. Sharma was declared Player of the Match.
Rohit Sharma was selected for the CB series in Australia against the hosts and Sri Lanka as a result of some of his important knocks in the preceding world cup.
Sharma played some crucial innings in the tournament which helped India win the series. These performances from the young player caught the fancy of the selectors and guaranteed an extended stay for him in the team in limited-overs cricket.
But inconsistency and giving away his wicket easily has made it difficult for him to cement his place in the team.
His inability to convert starts into big scores and low score performances did not convince the selectors to take him into the team for the 2011 world cup at home.
Rohit’s performance in IPL over the years has helped him to be considered for the national team by the selectors without completely abandoning him.
During his three-year stint at Deccan chargers after the launch of IPL he gave solid performances where he made more than 350 runs each year.
In 2011 he moved to Mumbai Indians and has been their main player since then until today.
After proving himself in 2011 IPL Sharma was recalled into the team for West Indies tour in the months of June and July in 2011 after being left out in the world cup.
There he displayed an extraordinary performance by scoring three half-centuries in five matches. However it also proved to be another false breakthrough moment of his career.
In the following CB tri-series in Australia in 2012 Sharma showed poor form where he was out for low scores often. His poor performances continued when India toured Sri Lanka after the CB series in the same year.
Sharma had a disastrous time in the tour as he scored only 14 runs in 5 innings where he was duck out twice.
By this time he had been given many chances to prove, but he failed.
However captain M.S.Dhoni and the selectors still backed him. Sharma was later made a opener in the 2013 Champions Trophy as there were no players to perfectly fit for that position.
This move was the biggest turning point in Sharma’s career and helped India win the tournament. Gradually he and Shikar Dhawan formed a strong opening pair.
After Champions Trophy, Australia toured India in October and November 2013. Australia played a 7 match ODI series in that tour. The series can be termed as a breakthrough moment in Sharma’s career as he scored 141 and remained not out in the second ODI and capping it with a glorious 209 in the deciding ODI in Bangalore and joined the elite list of ODI double-centurions which includes Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag.
He hit 16 sixes in the match and set the record of highest number of sixes hit by a player in a match.
In November the same year West Indies toured India where it was scheduled to play 2 Tests and 3 ODI matches.
The Test series is famous for Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement from all forms of cricket. As top players like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman retired from Test cricket by then the team management needed to groom a new crop of players to fill in their shoes and this brought new opportunities in the Test team.
Sharma finally earned place in the Indian Test team and thus played his first Test match in November 2013 against West Indies.
He made 177 in his debut innings and showed that he can bat equally well in any format of the game.
In the following Test which was Sachin Tendulkar’s last match he once again hit a century and entertained the emotional crowd.
Sharma found a place in the Test squad when India toured England between June and September of 2014.
He was at the receiving end in the series where he played only the 3rd Test among the five Tests and was out cheaply in both the innings.
As a result he was not taken into the final XI in the last two matches. India lost the series 3-1.
After an injury break Sharma in November 2014 in fourth match of a 5-match ODI series demolished the Sri Lankan bowling attack as he scored 264runs at Eden Gardens. This is the highest individual score in ODIs. In the match he hit 33 fours and set another world record.
Sharma was selected for the following Australia tour based on his historic innings at Eden Gardens. However he could not repeat the batting success he had in Indiain Tests there.
He made only a fifty in 6 innings. He looked vulnerable against the Aussie pace attack. His willingness to play away from the body and trying to hit through line in conditions which favoured swing led to his poor show there.
But he still was at his best in One-Days where he scored 330 runs second highest in the team in India’s world cup campaign in 2015.
The limited-overs Australia tour in early 2016 turned out to be another highlight of Rohit Sharma’s career. Sharma made two centuries and a 99 in the 5-match ODI series.
In the Asia Cup of 2016 also which India won where Pakistan Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were the contenders Rohit Sharma continued his success streak and won the Player of the Match award, twice in the tournament.
Following the Asia Cup in March 2016 T20 world cup took place in India. In the tournament Sharma had only moderate success where his highest score was 43 against West Indies, in the five matches he played.
India was knocked out of the tournament by West Indies in that match.
Sharma continued to get picked for Tests after that. He improved his Test batting technique a lot and played close to the body. He did not let his ODI game interfere in his way of batting in the Tests.
2017 Champions Trophy was a big disappointment to India as it lost to arch-rivals Pakistan in the finals.
But for Indian batsmen Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan the tournament turned out be a good one in terms of their batting as they were the two top-scores of the tournament.
Shikhar Dhawan made 338 runs in 5 matches becoming the highest-scorer in the tournament with an average of 67.60, while Rohit Sharma coming close second with 304 runs and average 76, highest in the tournament.
In 2017 Sri Lanka toured India and played a 3-match ODI series. In 2nd match of the series Rohit Sharma again ripped apart the Sri Lankan bowling attack while scoring another double-hundred (208 not out).
Unsurprisingly Rohit Sharma was again picked for South Africa tour where India was scheduled to play in 3 Tests 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is.
However his weaknesses on bouncy and fast surfaces were again exposed. He did not score even a half-century in 6 innings. India lost the series 2-1.
In the following ODI series South Africa played 6 matches against India. Sharma scored a century in 4th ODI reminding why he is one of the top batsmen in ODIs.
After the South Africa series India took part in Nidahas Trophy tournament hosted by Sri Lanka. It was a tri-series T20 tournament in which Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India participated.
Rohit Sharma was named the captain after Virat Kohli was rested. Sharma led the Indian team from the forefront to victory by scoring a half-century in the finals.
In mid-2018 India toured England to play 2 T20Is followed by 3 ODIs and 5 Tests after that.
Rohit Sharma scored century in the deciding T20 match and India claimed the series. Sharma became the second batsman to score 3 centuries in T20s.
He scored a consecutive century (137*) in the first ODI against England and provided a good start for the ODI series for India.
Though India won the match it lost the series 2-1.
However Sharma did not feature in the Test series which India lost 4-1.
After that India played in the 2018 edition of Asia cup which was hosted by UAE. Captain Virat Kohli was rested for the tournament and vice-captain Rohit Sharma was handed over the captaincy.
In the tournament he was in the best of forms where he made two centuries and one half century and in 5 matches among them two were unbeaten knocks.
India won the tournament under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. This was one of his biggest achievements as a captain after winning Nidahas Trophy in the same year held in Sri Lanka.
India visited Australia at the end of 2018 to play in 3 T20s 4 Tests and 3 0DIs. Rohit Sharma made it to the Test team after missing out on finding a place in the previous oversees tour where India toured England few months back.
But he got chance to play only in 1st and 3rd Test where he did not perform as expected. India created history by winning the series as it was the first time Australia lost home series to India.
In the3-match ODI series that followed Sharma scored a century (133) in the first match. India won the ODI series also Down Under.
In between May and July of 2019 the biggest event of cricket the ODI world cup was held in England. In the tournament Rohit Sharma was in finest of forms and unstoppable taking on the bowlers of opposition teams ruthlessly and making hundreds of runs as a opening batsman and set the stage for big totals .
Rohit Sharma made 5 centuries and one half-century in the 9 innings. He was the highest scorer in the world cup where he made 648 runs at an average of 81.0.
When Rohit Sharma got out in the semi-finals against New Zealand for one run the team could not chase a small score like 221 and was knocked out of the tournament. It tells us the importance of Sharma’s role in the team in the world cup.
Another important tour for India was when it visited New Zealand in early 2020 to play 5 T20Is 3 ODIs and 2 Tests.
Rohit Sharma was part of the ODI and T20 squad. He scored two half centuries in T20 matches and helped India whitewash the T20 series 5-0, But he was ruled out for the rest of the series as he suffered calf injury and walked off the field during the last T20 match.
Though initial reports suggested that he will be fine in two days of time it was later announced that he would not be part of ODIs. Mayank Agarwal replaced Sharma for the ODIs. India suffered due to Sharma’s absence and lost the ODI series 3-0
Rohit Sharma has evolved into a dominant force in limited overs cricket over the years but has not reached the same level of ability in Tests especially on foreign pitches.
His glaring weaknesses in the longest version of the game should be rectified sooner than later, otherwise players like Ajinkya Rahane might become the preferred choice of the selectors.
Though he has shown improvement in red-ball cricket with better technique and higher degree of patience, unless he comes up with big scores in overseas conditions Rohit Sharma he will not be considered a complete player.
Though Rohit Sharma is not an all-rounder he bowls right arm off-spin bowling part-time.
IPL Career
The Indian Premier League series has helped Rohit Sharma a lot. It has provided him opportunities to being considered by the selectors whenever he struggled with consistency especially in the early part of his career.
Sharma played for Deccan Chargers in the first three years after IPL was launched. During his stay at the Hyderabad team from 2008 to 2010 he scored above 350 runs every year.
He even took a hat-trick when he was with Deccan Chargers in 2009 the year the team went on to win the IPL championship.
In 2011 Sharma was signed by Mumbai Indians. Signing Rohit Sharma worked wonders for the team. Perhaps it might be the best decision the team made.
He performed consistently well for the team since the beginning. In 2013 he was appointed as the captain of the team replacing Harbhajan Singh.
Sharma caused a sensation by winning the IPL in his first year as captain and proved his tremendous leadership skills.
Under his leadership the Mumbai team has seen success like no other team. It has won the IPL four times, the highest number of times any team has won, in the years 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 all under his captaincy only, making him the most successful captain ever in IPL.
He also won the now defunct tournament the Champions League in 2013 as a captain.
Sharma is also one of the most prolific batsmen in IPL. He has scored 4898 runs with an average of 31.60.
He is the third among the highest run scores in IPL behind Indian captain Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina.
His highest score is 109 not out which he made in the year 2012.He has hit one century and 36 half centuries in IPL.
Philanthropy
Rohit Sharma supports activities involving animal-welfare health-care and children.
He is a member of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and supports the sterilisation of homeless cats and Dogs.
He is also WWF-Rhino ambassador involved in supporting the conservation of Rhinoceros in India.
