The story behind Rohit Sharma's ascendancy as an opener in limited overs cricket
"This guy is a serious talent". You might have heard this phrase many times over the years from renowned cricket greats and experts when they talk about Rohit "The Hitman" Sharma.
Back in 2007, a young Rohit debuted for India in an ODI against Ireland and within the next year, he had already played crucial roles in India's winning campaigns in the T20 World Cup in 2007 and CB Series in 2008.
He was dubbed as something special and probably the pressure of expectations at a young age got the better of him as injuries and inconsistent form denied him a place in the 2011 World Cup squad.
Things looked to have taken a positive turn when he churned out Man of the Series performances in the away and home ODI series' against West Indies in 2011, and this tempted people to believe that Rohit had finally arrived on the big stage.
However, poor form in the 2012 CB Series, a mediocre Asia Cup after that, a horror run in the ODI series against Sri Lanka where he managed just 13 runs across 5 innings (yes, you read that right) made the people question his spot in the ODI squad.
In 2012, Rohit managed just 1 half-century in the ODI format in the entire year and played majorly at No. 4 because of Yuvraj Singh's absence due to Cancer. However, when Yuvraj returned in the limited-overs series against Pakistan in December 2012, Rohit was dropped from the team, also to accommodate an all-rounder in the form of returning Ravindra Jadeja.
Rohit seemed to have played his last ODI, at least in the near future, until he got a new lease of life in the ODI series against England in early 2013. Sachin had recently retired from one-day internationals, Sehwag had been dropped after India's series loss against Pakistan and his replacement Ajinkya Rahane had poor returns in the 4 innings he had opened since then.
India were leading the 5 match ODI series 2-1 till that point, and with one win still needed to secure the series, the team management replaced Rahane with Rohit at the top of the order. Rohit had earlier opened for the team in the 2009 World T20 and in 3 ODIs against South Africa in 2010-11, with little to no success.
However, Rohit responded immediately, scoring a match-winning 83 which won them the ODI series. Although he failed again in the last ODI of the series, he had shown that he was a capable enough player at the top of the order.
Champions Trophy 2013
India had walked into the tournament as one of the favorites. They had new faces at the top of the order in Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan because of the continued poor form of Gautam Gambhir in ODIs for quite a while and even in the 2013 IPL.
However, the selection of Murali Vijay raised a few eyebrows because he has had even a worse IPL season than Gambhir. However, the team management still backed him, perhaps due to his performances in the 2013 Test series against Australia, and looking to try a few openers before the 2015 World Cup.
India played 2 practice matches before the actual tournament started: against Sri Lanka and Australia. In both of them, Dinesh Karthik scored match-winning centuries and bailed the team out of trouble.
Karthik was perhaps not even in the team's plans for their playing XI, at least in the starting stages of the tournament. But, his stellar run for Mumbai Indians in the 2013 IPL as well as in the 2 practice games, made him a certainty in the playing XI. On the other hand, Vijay and Rohit failed to make an impression in both the games.
India had a settled batting order at that time with Virat at 3, Raina at 5 and Dhoni at 6. The initial plan, as evident by their batting order even in the 2 practice games, was to bat Rohit at 4.
However, Karthik's form meant that either he had to move up the order, a role which he had played before for India, to accommodate Rohit at 4 (given that Vijay was not seen as an option in the middle-order) or play Karthik at 4 and make either of Vijay or Rohit open.
It was very easy to go with Vijay instead of Rohit, given that he was new to the set-up and deserved more chances. But, MS Dhoni being the mastermind he is, went in with Rohit. He believed that Rohit had the ability and the shots required to succeed as an opener; in the 2013 Champions Trophy and perhaps in the 2015 World Cup.
The rest, they say, is history. Karthik was dropped from the team after a while due to poor performances, Murali Vijay has never been able to cement his spot in the limited-overs team and Gambhir has not played an ODI since 2013.
What has stayed though, is Rohit Sharma. The 2013 Champions Trophy was the breakout tournament both for him and Shikhar Dhawan. What was seen initially as a makeshift opening pair, has turned into one of the most formidable ones the game has ever seen.
Rohit averages a staggering 58.2 since the 2013 Champions Trophy and has scored 17 of his 19 ODI Hundreds since then and looks set to continue for the next few years as well. Test cricket might still be left for him to conquer, but as far limited-overs internationals is concerned, it is safe to say that he is one of the best ever openers to play the game.