Rohit Gurunath Sharma an Indian international cricketer, a right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler (with a hat-trick in the Indian Premier League) plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket.
He is the captain of Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. Having started his international career at the age of 20, Sharma quickly came to be pegged by many analysts as a permanent fixture in the Indian cricket team in the next decade. In 2013, he started playing as an opening batsman for the Indian ODI team, and performed consistently.
He scored consecutive centuries in his first two Test matches against the West Indies in November 2013, scoring 177 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on debut, followed by a score of 111 in the next Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
On 13 November 2014, he scored 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, which is the highest individual score in ODIs. Rohit Sharma's individual 264 runs high score in odi cricket, ODI in 10-weeks began with a touch of nerves. He was even kept scoreless in one Angelo Mathews maiden.
By the end of the innings, his batting had become cartoonish. There was no shot he had not played. No part of the ground he had not exploited. No bowler who escaped his brutality. Rohit amassed 45 more runs than any ODI batsman had ever managed in an innings, finishing on 264 from 173 balls when he was finally caught off the last ball of the innings. India, almost incidentally, had moved to 404 for 5, despite having travelled at a run rate of less than six for the first 32 overs.
Rohit's innings was so ludicrous that the first 100 runs, which were hit at a run-a-ball, seemed achingly humdrum in comparison to the 164 that followed. The surge had actually begun before he reached his century, when he plundered 14 runs in four balls, in Nuwan Kulasekara's 30th over. Soon after that, the ball was leaping off the middle of his bat with almost every stroke he offered.
There were many incredible shots, from among his 33 fours and nine sixes, but the most gob smacking was the six off Kulasekara at the end of the 48th over, when he walked across to off stump, took a half volley from about a foot and half away from him and flicked it high over the midwicket boundary. It was the kind of shot, and innings, that seemed in open defiance of physics.
Sri Lanka had played a tour match against Mumbai to warm-up for the series, but little did they know Rohit Sharma was warming-up against them. He hit 145 from 111 in that match - his first competitive game since fracturing a finger in August - and he has now re-embedded himself at the top of the India batting order in the most resounding fashion imaginable.
Another beautifully orchestrated batting Powerplay from India - between the 30th and 34th overs - brought them 67 runs, and was enough to hammer the Sri Lanka bowlers off their rhythm for the rest of the innings. Short, wide deliveries, thigh-high full tosses and rank long hops were presented with alarming regularity, and the fielding was almost as woeful.
Sri Lanka had not expected to begin the series strongly, given their lack of preparation, but in these two disciplines, they have actually worsened significantly through the tour.
By the time Rohit hit Kulasekara down Mahela Jayawardene's throat at long-off, the record for most fours struck in an innings had also tumbled, and Rohit was in possession of half the ODI scores over 200. Kulkarni removed two more from the lower order to finish with 4 for 34, and India completed yet another crushing victory.
Asked if he was tired after his epic knock, a smiling Rohit said, "Not really. I have had a break due to injury and I am not tired at all. I could have continued for another 50 overs." Eden Gardens also holds an emotional place in Rohit's heart as he scored a big hundred on debut at this very venue last year and has now got the highest-ever ODI score.
"It's been a great venue for me as I got my hundred on Test debut at this venue. The crowd were cheering me right through.” said Rohit Sharma.
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