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After 18 years and 276 ODIs of debut, Rohit Sharma finally became the number-1 batsman of ODIs. Unable to fix a place in the team for 5 years, Rohit’s career took a turn after starting opening. Got captaincy at the age of 35 and became the world’s oldest number-1 ODI batsman at the age of 38.
Know in the story how Rohit Sharma’s career changed…
Made his mark with Under-19 World Cup
Team India played in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup under the captaincy of Ravikant Shukla. The team lost to Pakistan in the final, but the tournament gave India future stars like Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla and Rohit Sharma. Pujara became the player of the series after scoring 349 runs.
Rohit became India’s third top scorer in the tournament. He scored 202 runs by hitting 3 fifties. Rohit was performing well for Mumbai in domestic cricket. On the basis of this performance, he got a chance to make his ODI debut in 2007. In the same year, he also made his T-20 debut and became a part of Team India that won the World Cup.
Kept in and out of ODI team for 5 years
After his debut, Rohit kept going in and out of the team continuously. He was getting a chance to bat in the middle order, where he could not leave much of an impression. Rohit played all the T20 World Cups till 2012, but could not make it to the 2009 Champions Trophy and 2011 ODI World Cup.
Till 2012, Rohit could score only about 2 thousand ODI runs in 86 matches at an average of 30. Only two players took more innings than him to score 2000 ODI runs for India. During this period, he definitely scored 5 fifties in T-20, but the charisma that was expected from him was not visible till now.
Opening position changed luck
In January 2013, India played a series against England on home ground. India lost the Test series, while the T-20 series remained tied at 1-1. England won the first match of the ODI series. India made a comeback in the series by winning the second and third matches. India made a big change in the fourth ODI. Regular opener Ajinkya Rahane was removed and Rohit was given a chance to open in his place.
23 January 2013, Mohali ground and Team India in front of number-1 ODI team England. The series is at stake and India came out with new opener Rohit. England scored 257 runs. Rohit scored 83 runs in 93 balls with 11 fours and 1 six. His innings took the team to the target of 258 runs. India won the match by 5 wickets and won the series.
Rohit could score only 4 runs in the last ODI of the series, but his performance in the fourth ODI fixed his place in the Champions Trophy to be held after 4 months. Rohit opened here with Shikhar Dhawan and gave India a strong start in 4 out of 5 matches. Both of them made 2 fifty and 2 century partnerships. Rohit scored 2 fifties and he simply could not cross the 10-run mark in the final.
Scored 3 double centuries in 5 years
Rohit made the opening position his in a single year. After the Champions Trophy, India played an ODI series against Australia in the same year. Before the last ODI, the series was tied at 2-2. The last match took place on 2 November. Rohit and Dhawan gave a strong start to the Bengaluru team that came to bat first.
Dhawan was out after scoring 60 runs, immediately after him Virat Kohli, who had scored 2 centuries in the series, was run out. The entire responsibility fell on Rohit, who scored a double century and took India to 383 runs. This was the first double century of his international career. India won the match by 57 runs and won the series.
After the first double century in 2013, Rohit also scored the second double century in 2014 and the third double century in 2017. Rohit was also the second top scorer after Shikhar Dhawan in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Within 5 years, he scored more than 160 runs in ODIs 5 times. These included an inning of 171 runs in Australia.
Scored 5 centuries in the 2019 World Cup
Rohit’s peak form came in the 2019 ODI World Cup. Starting the innings, he scored 5 centuries. He could not convert his fifty into a century only once in the tournament. Against Australia, he gave a strong start to the team by scoring 57 runs. In front of him, Dhawan scored a century and gave victory to the team. Rohit became the top scorer of the tournament, but the team could not win the title after losing the semi-finals.
Virat and Babar stopped him from becoming number-1
Rohit remained in his peak form from 2013 to 2019, but due to Virat Kohli being in the top position, Rohit could not become the number-1 ODI batsman. During this, he also achieved his career best rating of 882, but Virat remained on top with 909 points.
When Virat moved from the top, Pakistan’s Babar Azam took the first position and Rohit’s wait increased. During this period Babar had 898 points. Rohit came in the top-10 for the first time in 2016, in 2018 he got the number-2 spot for the first time. Even till 2024, Rohit remained around the number-2 spot, but could not reach the top.
Became number-1 after Player of the Series
On 19 February 2025, Shubhman Gill of India removed Babar from the top position. Shubman remained at number-1 for 7 months and kept waiting for Rohit. Then Shubman had 796 points. Both Shubman and Rohit were top scorers in the Champions Trophy, hence remained in the top-3 positions of the rankings.
After about 7 months, India now played the ODI series in October. Shubman flopped in all three matches and could not even score 50 runs in the series. On the other hand, Rohit scored a fifty in the second ODI and a century in the third. His performance of 202 runs not only made him the Player of the Series but also made him the number-1 ODI batsman in the latest ICC rankings.
Rohit became the oldest number-1 batsman at 38 years, 182 days. He broke the record of Sachin Tendulkar, who became the number-1 batsman at the age of 38 years, 73 days. Rohit will now be seen playing ODI against South Africa on 30th November.
Became captain after the age of 35
The way Rohit’s batting career started shining after a wait of 5 years. Similarly, his captaincy career also started after the age of 35. After Virat in 2022, Rohit got the captaincy of all three formats. Rohit gave his best in ODI and T-20 cricket.
India lost the semi-finals in the 2022 T20 World Cup, after which Rohit decided to change the mindset of the team. In the 2023 ODI World Cup, India made it to the finals by winning 10 consecutive matches, but had to face defeat by Australia.
India won ICC title after 11 years
India lost the ODI World Cup on 19 November 2023. Only after 6 months, T-20 World Cup was played between 20 teams. Under the captaincy of Rohit, India once again reached the finals while remaining unbeaten. The team defeated South Africa by a close margin of 7 runs and ended the drought of winning the ICC trophy after 11 years.
India won the T20 World Cup after 17 years under the captaincy of Rohit. Rohit also won his first international title as a player in the form of T-20 World Cup. Rohit also made India win the Champions Trophy again in 2025. He has also made the team win 2 Asia Cups.
Better success rate than Dhoni in ICC tournaments
Rohit Sharma was the second best captain of India in terms of winning the ICC trophy for India. MS Dhoni led the team to win 3 different ICC trophies. However, Rohit was ahead of Dhoni in terms of winning percentage in all the tournaments taken together.
Under the captaincy of Rohit, India played 35 ICC matches and lost only 6. That means India won about 83% of the matches. On the other hand, under Dhoni’s captaincy, India played 11 ICC tournaments, won 3 and lost the final once. The team could not reach the finals 7 times. During this period the team’s winning percentage was 73%.
Retired with lackluster shine in Tests
Even in Tests, Rohit’s career started shining very late. Rohit made his Test debut in 2013 and scored 2 centuries. Till 2018, he could not even fit into the Test team. In 2019, he started opening here also.
In 2020 he started performing better, in 2021 he went to England and scored a century and made the opening position his own. Rohit was somehow able to understand the Test mindset that he was made the captain of this format in 2022. In 2023, the team had to face defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
In 2024, the team lost the series against New Zealand 0-3 at home. The team could not even win the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. Rohit failed as a captain as well as a player in both the series. The Test team for the England tour was to be announced in May 2025, in which there was speculation that he would be removed from the captaincy.
He said goodbye to Test cricket on 7 May even before the team was announced. Rohit also retired from T-20 on 29 June 2024. Like Kohli, he now plays only ODI cricket. The focus of both the legendary players is now on winning the 2027 ODI World Cup.
