Rohit Sharma: A career in centuries as record-breaking Team India batsman stars in T20 series win over England

Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten century against England in the final match of the T20 international series will be long remembered. The 31-year-old player who did not have an impressive run during the first two matches silenced his critics with a mind-blowing 100* in 56 balls.

THE NEWEST RECORD

With this century Sharma continued to break records and darkened the already indelible mark of the potency of Indian batsmen in the history books of international Cricket. On Sunday, Sharma became the only person along with New Zealand’s Colin Munro to score three centuries in T20 Internationals. Apart from that, his scorecard, which recorded 11 boundaries and 5 sixes, also made him the only player to have at least three centuries across all the formats of the game: T20 Internationals, tests and ODIs. 

THE BIGGEST INNINGS

During the 4th ODI of the 2014 Sri Lanka tour of India, Rohit Sharma scored a massive 264 runs in 173 balls shattering the then record for the highest innings score by a single player in ODIs. In doing so, he surpassed compatriot Virender Sehwag who had scored 219 against the West Indies in Indore, in 2011. Trailing behind him now is New Zealand player MJ Guptill who scored 237* in 163 balls against West Indies in 2015. This is the most significant one among the other 16 centuries that he has scored in his career.

The mammoth 264 was Sharma's second ODI double century. His first came in India’s seventh ODI against Australia in 2013 which saw Sharma scoring 209 runs in 158 balls. Most recently, in 2017, he scored yet another double-ton by bagging 208* runs in 153 balls against Sri Lanka.

Aside from his three double-hundreds in 2013, 2014 and 2017, Rohit was also the highest individual innings scorer for India in ODI’s in 2015 with a score of 150 runs, as well as in 2016 and 2017 with scores of 171* and 208* respectively.

This means that for five consecutive years between 2013 and 2017 Rohit Sharma posted each year's highest innings score for India.

TESTS A TEST?

Coming to the longer format of the game, in terms of test centuries, Sharma has touched the hundred mark thrice in his career. The very first one came against West Indies in 2013, where he scored a total of 177 runs in 301 balls in the first innings of the first test. This was followed by his 111 runs in 127 balls in the first innings of the second test in the same series. Finally, after a gap of almost five years, in the test series against Sri Lanka in 2017, Sharma scored his third test century with a score of 102 runs in 160 balls in the first innings of the second test.

T20 KING

In the T20 Internationals domain, Sharma scored his first century in the year 2015 with a score of 106 runs in 66 balls against South Africa. This was then followed by his massive 118 runs in just 43 balls against Sri Lanka in 2017. And now, on Sunday, Rohit Sharma hit his third T20 International century with a score of 100 runs in 56 balls against England.

BIGGEST HITTER?

In the international arena, Sharma broke the record that was set by Shane Watson for most runs from fours and sixes in an innings by carving out a massive 186 runs just in boundaries. He also has the highest number of sixes in an ODI innings with a count of 16 sixes in a single match!

The victorious march of Rohit Sharma is not only restricted to International matches. Sharma who took over as captain of the IPL team Mumbai Indians in 2013 led it to title triumph in the same year as well as in 2015 and 2017!

Can Rohit Sharma stake a claim to being among the best limited-overs batsmen of all time? Let us know in the comments below.