Rohit Sharma joins Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag on elite list during IND vs SL 1st ODI
India captain Rohit Sharma became the only third batter for the Men in Blue to reach 15,000 runs in international cricket as an opener. The right-hander achieved the landmark during the opening ODI against Sri Lanka at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday, August 2.
With the record, Rohit has joined legendary Sachin Tendulkar (15335) and Virender Sehwag (16119) for most runs as an opening batter in the 50-over format. Overall, he became the 10th opener to reach 15,000 runs.
For the unversed, former Sri Lanka opener Sanath Jayasuriya has the most runs as an opener in international cricket. The southpaw has 19,298 runs.
The top five list also comprises West Indies legend Chris Gayle (18867), Australia’s David Warner (18744), erstwhile South Africa captain Graeme Smith (16950) and another WI batter Desmond Haynes (16120), respectively. Sehwag and Tendulkar are sixth and seventh in the top 10 list.
“One of the greatest all-time one-day openers” – Former India cricketer on Rohit Sharma
Former India cricketer Kris Srikkanth lauded Rohit Sharma for his opening game for converting starts into big scores. He rated him one of the greatest openers of all time. The World Cup-winning player told Star Sports in 2022 (via The Times of India):
"I would rate him as one of the greatest all-time one-day openers in world cricket. What's the greatest quality in Rohit Sharma is that he goes for these big hundreds and double hundreds, that is something amazing.”
"In a one-day match, you will go 150, 180, 200, just imagine where you are going to take the team to, that's the greatness about Rohit,” he added.
Notably, Rohit Sharma has three double centuries as an opener in ODIs. The Mumbai batter used to play as a finisher before taking the role of an opener in January 2013. That came six years after making his international debut for Team India in 2007.
As far as the match is concerned, India were 77-1 after 13 overs while chasing 231. Rohit was unbeaten on 56 at the time of writing.
Follow the IND vs SL 1st ODI live score and updates here.