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India skipper Rohit Sharma led from the front and rode on an impressive 83 off 67 to help India clinch a facile victory in the ODI opener against Sri Lanka on January 10 (Tuesday). Rohit's incredible knock saw him being compared to the Australian batting legend Ricky Ponting. Impressed by the Hitman's knock, former India star batter Gautam Gambhir drew parallel between ex-aussie skipper Ponting and India's very own Hitman. He feels that Rohit is a better batter than Ponting in the ODIs.
“He is a better player than Ricky Ponting, because Ricky has got a sh** record in the subcontinent,” Gambhir told Star Sports before India's second ODI against Sri Lanka on Thursday (January 12).
Both the batting juggernauts have a stunning records in the ODIs. Rohit has amassed 9537 runs in a total of 236 ODIs riding on 29 tons and three-double hundreds at an average of 48.90, while his highest individual score remains 264. On the other hand, Australia's two-time World Cup winning captain Ponting played 375 ODIs from 1995-2012 and scored 13,704 runs at an average of 42.03 with a highest individual score of 164. In his 17-year-long stint, he struck 30 centuries and 82 fifties.
As far as their subcontinent performances are concerned, Ponting amassed 3109 runs in a total of 87 ODIs which saw six centuries at an average of 39.85.
Meanwhile, Rohit has 29 ODI centuries to his name in 237 games, one short of Ricky Ponting’s tally in 375 appearances. In fact, the opener scored 19 hundreds between 2017 to 2020, including a record five at the 2019 World Cup in England. However, he hasn’t got a triple figure score for India in the format since January 2020, when he did the same against Australia.
“The surprising fact is that in the last four or five years he has gotten this many hundreds. Rohit Sharma before the last five-six years was not this consistent. He definitely got about 20 hundreds in the last five-six-seven years,” Gambhir further added.
It's been a while since Rohit hit his last ODI century as his last century came in 2020 against Australia. And as far as ODI centuries are concerned, Rohit is just one ton short of Ponting's record of 29 ODI centuries as only Sachin Tendulkar (49) and Virat Kohli (45) have more three-figure scores in ODI cricket than the Australian batting great.
