Rohit Sharma

One of the world's best batters and the most successful captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rohit Sharma is a global cricketing star. Earlier, Rohit was just a prodigious talent for around four to five years in inter. Such was his talent and the combined inconsistency that the player himself started to dislike the word.

It wasn't like the Nagpur-born batsman hadn't achieved anything substantial until 2013. He had already been part of the Indian squad that went onto win the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, and that lifted the Commonwealth Bank series title in 2008.

In terms of his personal performances, Rohit made a solid impact in the 'Super 8' match against South Africa and also the first final of the CB series against Australia. However, these performances seemed far and few in between as Rohit Sharma lost his spots to Suresh Raina and another prodigious talent in the form of Virat Kohli. 

Some good form in domestic cricket brought about a national team recall, with Rohit scoring his maiden ODI century against Zimbabwe in 2010. He could have had a Test cap in the same year, but unfortunately, an injury suffered during a football session before the Nagpur Test against South Africa saw the Mumbaikar being ruled out of the match. If that wasn't enough, he suffered a slump in form in ODI cricket once again and missed out on the 2011 ICC World Cup squad. The then-23-year-old expressed his obvious disappointment of missing out on the World Cup squad on social media. 

Post the victorious World Cup campaign, Rohit got a chance to tour the West Indies, with several of the mainstays being rested due to a gruelling previous few months, which saw the IPL being played a few days after the 2011 World Cup final. Rohit did well in that series by bagging the 'Man of the Series' award, but he couldn't continue the impressive performances for long. A bad 2012 saw his place come under scrutiny once again. Things got worse as the ODI series against Sri Lanka saw him score only nine runs in five matches. 

Just when no one expected Rohit to feature in the Indian team for some time, Virender Sehwag and Ajinkya Rahane's poor performances against Pakistan and England, later on, provided him with a lifeline as the ex-Indian team skipper MS Dhoni gave an opportunity to open in the 4th ODI against England. Rohit scored 83 off 93 balls, and there has been no turning back since then. 

In what's today termed one of the masterstrokes of MS Dhoni, the then-Indian captain sent Rohit up the order to open for India, who forged a fantastic opening combo with Shikhar Dhawan to help India lift the 2013 Champions Trophy. A few months later, Rohit plundered 491 runs in six innings in what was a high-scoring ODI series against Australia. More importantly, the last match of that series saw him score the first of his three double-hundreds in ODI cricket, a feat none has achieved so far.

In the same year, he made his much-awaited Test debut against West Indies in a series known chiefly for being 'Sachin Tendulkar's farewell series'. He made two hundred in those two Test matches and made a fantastic introduction to the longest format of the game. Although his Test performances in overseas conditions dipped in the following years, Rohit only grew as a limited-overs batsman. 

Rohit's outstanding consistency can't be reflected better than the fact that he was named in the ICC ODI' Team of the Year' for five consecutive seasons between 2014 and 2020.

He also opened in style during the T20 World Cup of 2014 and 2016 and performed well in the ODI World Cup in 2015. In 2018, India won their seventh Asia Cup title under Rohit Sharma's captaincy.

However, 2019 was probably Rohit's best year, as he smashed five hundreds in the ODI World Cup in England. Such form meant that he bagged both the 'ICC ODI Player of the Year' award and also the prestigious 'Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna' award in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

During his purple patch in white-ball cricket, the Hitman notched up the record for most 150+ scores in ODI cricket (8) as well as the most centuries in T20I cricket (5). Also, during one of the games against Sri Lanka in 2017 at home, the dashing opener slammed the joint-fastest ton in T20I cricket, along with David Miller (35 balls).

Post the World Cup, Rohit found yet another version of himself in Test Cricket after being asked to open for the first time in the home series against South Africa. He took a liking to open in the longest format too, by scoring twin centuries in the first Test and followed it up with a double hundred at Ranchi. 

Since then, there has been Rohit's much-awaited comeback in the longest format. He played a pivotal role in the last two Tests in the historic series win over Australia in 2020-21 Down Under and backed it up with performances versus England at home. 

In terms of the IPL, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Rohit and Mumbai Indians' best days started when he led the side to a maiden IPL title in 2013. Fast forward to 2021, and Mumbai is the most successful IPL side with five Championships to their name.

The star batter from Mumbai has already achieved a reputation as one of the best white-ball cricketers the world has ever witnessed. After averaging 30.43 as a fledgling middle-order batter before the 4th ODI against England in 2013, Rohit is now an opener who averages nearly 50 and has already done what most cricketers envy to achieve in their whole career.

In 2021, Rohit was awarded the captaincy of the Indian team in all formats after Virat Kohli stepped down after India's disastrous campaign in the 2021 T20 World Cup in UAE. 

He led India to several bilateral series wins in the buildup to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia with a fearless and aggressive approach in batting. However, a conservative and timid approach down under during the semi-final against England at Adelaide caused another knockout in a multinational tournament after the heartbreak in Asia Cup 2022.

In the same year, Rohit's MI side also ended up at the bottom of the points table, with just four wins out of the 14 games being played. After a series defeat in South Africa, the Mumbaikar also took over captaincy in the red ball format.

Now, in the twilight of his International career, it would be safe to say that Rohit has thoroughly established himself as one of the all-time Indian batters in limited-overs cricket. However, as he had often said, his true desire is to make India win an ICC trophy with his bat and tactical acumen. 

He came so close to achieving it in the ODI World Cup 2023. India came to the tournament with an emphatic Asia Cup triumph. From captaincy masterstrokes to swashbuckling batting, Rohit was an enigma in India's World Cup campaign.

Rohit scored 597 runs, the second-most, in 11 innings at an average of 54.27 and a strike-rate of 125.95. He became the batter with most centuries (7) in the ODI World Cup history. He also became the first player to record 500 or more runs in two consecutive ODI World Cup editions.

India entered the final of the competition with a clean record, running on a streak of 10 wins. However, Australia pulled off a remarkable win, shunning Team India down from the title in their own home.

After the World Cup upset, Rohit returned as the India captain in the whites for the South Africa series. After losing the first Test, India came back strong in the second and won. Rohit became the second Indian captain to draw a Test series in South Africa. He also became the first Asian captain to win a Test match in Cape Town.

Although Rohit lost the chance to win the ODI World Cup, his focus is now on the shortest format. He was sacked as the Mumbai Indians captain ahead of IPL 2024. However, he will lead India in the T20 World Cup 2024.

The Hitman made his T20I return after 14 months in the Afghanistan series. He recorded ducks in the first two matches but roared to form in the final game, chalking up a hundred, his fifth in T20Is. He now has the joint record of most T20I centuries against his name.

(As of February 2024)