Rohit Sharma's record-setting 264 and the transition that followed

India were hosting Sri Lanka in 2014 with the fourth ODI of the 5-match series being played at the iconic Eden Gardens. Rohit Sharma was making a comeback after suffering an injury against England earlier that year. Captain Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bat first in Kolkata and the rest is history.

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A comeback to dream of

Rohit opened the innings along with Ajinkya Rahane, holding his end while Rahane and Ambati Rayadu struggled to contribute much. A stable partnership was finally formed when captain Kohli shared a partnership with Sharma. Sharma got to his 50 off 72 balls and immediately picked up pace. Nudging Shaminda Eranga towards the leg side for a single, Rohit went to 100 runs off 100 balls. The crowd erupted but Rohit had much more in store.

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Rohit got to his 150 on the 125th ball he faced and Kohli was still at the other end and the two were sharing a partnership which had gone past 150 runs already as well. On the 3rd ball of the 46th over, Sharma hit Nuwan Kulasekara for a four through the off-side and got to 201 off just 151 balls. With that, he became the first-ever batsman to score two double hundreds in ODI cricket.

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Rohit was on 216 when he hit Shaminda Eranga for a six and went to 222 passing Virender Sehwag's 219. Rohit's score was now the highest score in the history of ODI cricket. Rohit ended his innings at 264 when on the final ball of the innings. That day, Rohit made 264 runs from 173 balls. It has been five years since then and yet his score still remains the highest ODI score to have ever been scored by a batsman. 

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Rohit's dominance in ODI cricket only began since then as he has become one of the greatest batsmen to have graced the modern game. Three years after his 264, Rohit made a third double-hundred in the form of 208* against Sri Lanka at Mohali in December 2017. He broke his own record and now has an unparalleled three triple-hundreds in ODI cricket. The innings clearly made one of the world's best batsmen who had the ability to score big once he is set.

He made 171* against Australia at Perth in 2016. His streak of daddy hundreds in ODI cricket continued as he smashed 162 against West Indies at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai in 2018. These are only a few of the 22 hundreds he has scored since that game in 2014. In 2019, he almost got India its third World Cup title after he scored a record five hundreds in the tournament. This year, Rohit Sharma made a comeback into the Test side as an opener and immediately broke multiple records. Rohit has maintained his image as a big-hitter and by the look of things, we may have not even seen the best of him.