Rohit Sharma has finally broken his shackles against the NHS Express (Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf & Shaheen Afridi). He took his time and then pounced on Shadab Khan for 19 runs in an over before shooting down the Pak off-spinner again to bring up 50th ODI half-century. He is now 8th Indian batter on the list of Most ODI Fifties after his blitz in India vs Pakistan (IND vs PAK) Asia Cup 2023 clash.
Having struggled against left-arm pace of Shaheen Shah Afridi, it was always going to be the Pakistan pacer dominating. But it was not the case on Sunday. Rohit Sharma was in aggressive mode from early on. While he took a backseat with Shubman Gill commanding the passage of play, he promptly took the charge back against Shadad Khan.
With two sixes and a 4 against Shadab’s first over, he flicked the beast mode on, completing his 50th half-century in just 42 balls.
While he eventually perished to Shadab Khan for 56, it was enough to take him to an elite list of 50th ODI fifty. He joins Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli, Mohammad Azharuddin and Yuvraj Singh on the list.
While Sachin Tendulkar leads the charts with 96 half-centuries, Rahul Dravid is behind him with 83. Virat Kohli has 65 ODI fifties.
However, Rohit Sharma fell short of reaching a landmark moment. He was 78 runs behind completing 10,000 runs in ODIs. But he fell 22 runs short. He remains stuck on 9,978 runs.
Rohit Sharma will become only the 6th Indian batter to score 10,000 runs in ODIs. Rohit Sharma will get another opportunity against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
10,000+ Runs by Indians in ODIs
- Sachin Tendulkar: 18,426 Runs
- Virat Kohli: 12,902 *(Till India vs Nepal)
- Sourav Ganguly: 11,363
- Rahul Dravid: 10,889
- MS Dhoni: 10,773
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