Rohit Sharma’s breakthrough season in international cricket finally arrived during the 2013 season, when he was promoted up the order during the Champions Trophy in England.
The faith entrusted on him by his captain MS Dhoni, paid rich dividends for the Indian team, as he went on to notch up his maiden double-ton against Australia in the Bangalore ODI.
Earlier, only two Indian batsmen managed to achieve the glorious feat – Sachin Tendulkar was the first batsman to break the threshold of the highest ODI score during his unbeaten 200 at Gwalior against South Africa in 2010. Then, Virender Sehwag broke Tendulkar’s record with his 219 against West Indies at Indore in 2011.
During the swashbuckling knock of 209 against Australia, Rohit had the world record in sight for most-runs scored by an individual batsman. He recently revealed that it was Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh who backed him to break Sehwag’s record, along with few others.
The Mumbai titan opened about the same to his Indian teammate Ravichandran Ashwin during a recent chat on Instagram Live.
“When I went back after scoring the double century, someone was telling me that if you would have batted another over or so you would have broken Virender Sehwag’s record also,” Rohit told Ashwin.
“The expectation in the dressing room was really high. There were three or four guys who wanted me (Rohit) to score 10 or 15 more runs, Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) was one of them and maybe Shikhar Dhawan too,” he added.
One year later, Hitman eventually broke the record during his mammoth knock of 264 against Sri Lanka at his beloved Eden Gardens.
Rohit is now the only batsman to score three double-tons in ODI cricket, as he also posted 208 against Sri Lanka at Mohali.
Since his move at the opening slot, there has been no stopping for Rohit. He has matched Virat, runs for runs, and tons for tons, facing the new ball.
Rohit’s watershed moment in career arrived during the 2019 World Cup in England, when he scored five tons in a single edition, most by any batsmen.
