India opener Rohit Sharma played a gritty knock of 92 in the third ODI of the series against West Indies. With skipper Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli back in the hut early, Rohit played a mature knock in New Chandigarh on October 3. During his 92-run knock, Rohit became the fastest opener to 10,000 ODI runs in terms of innings. Rohit broke the long-standing record that belonged to legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Rohit took 202 innings to complete 10,000 ODI runs as opener. He also became the fourth batter to score 10,000 ODI runs as an opener.
Openers with 10,000-plus ODI runs as opener
The previous record was of 214 innings. In January 2004, Tendulkar became the first to achieve the feat from 214 innings. In June 2006, Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya became the slowest opener to 10,000 ODI runs. Jayasuriya took 303 innings to get to the milestone. Before Rohit, the previous opener to complete 10,000 ODI runs was West Indies' Chris Gayle from 268 innings. Gayle did it during the ODI World Cup 2019 on English soil.
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Rohit’s message to naysayers
Rohit’s place in the side for the upcoming ODI World Cup 2027 in South Africa has been debated. On the UK tour, it was reported that Rohit will retire after the third and final ODI of the series at Lord’s, London. But, he smashed an unbeaten 138 in an unsuccessful run chase and the top brass put an end to all the rumours. It led to fingers being pointed at the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar. But, if you look at the statistics since ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final, Rohit has been a top performer in the format.
"Rohit Sharma is playing superbly in all matches. What more do you want? In the last match, he scored 130-140 runs. So why is there speculation? I do not want to give fodder to the speculators,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia had told the media after review meeting earlier this month.
India's first ODI series after the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 was on Australian soil. Rohit has played 18 ODIs during this period and scored 952 runs at an average of 56 and strike rate of 110.74 including three centuries and five half-centuries.
Only England's Joe Root (1,044 runs from 18 ODIs) and West Indies captain Shai Hope (985 runs from 23 ODI innings) are ahead of Rohit. Rohit is closely followed by his captain Shubman Gill (938 runs from 14 innings) and Virat Kohli (928 runs from 15 innings).
How Rohit paced his innings?
After opting to bat first, India lost two wickets in the third over. Skipper Gill was surprised by the short ball from Jayden Seales. He tried to play it towards fine leg but ended up getting caught by Hope. The West Indies captain put in a stunning dive to take the catch. Seales followed it up with a wide. Then, he bowled a brilliant nip-backer to flatten Kohli's middle stump. Kohli got bowled for a golden duck, his first in seven years in the ODI format.
Rohit tried to help India recover from 4/2. He hit the first four of the innings in the fifth over, a short and wide delivery slashed away for a boundary square of the wicket. In the ninth over, Alzarri Joseph pitched it up and the umpire raised his finger. Rohit opted for the DRS straightaway and it gave him a reprieve when he was batting on 16 off 33 balls. In the 12th over, Rohit hit the first six of the innings. He broke the shackles by flicking a delivery from Keemo Paul over deep square leg boundary.
On the other end, Gaikwad had three reprieves as West Indies fielders seemed to have butter fingers. Rohit accelerated and completed his 63rd ODI half-century from 58 balls, making up for the dot deliveries during first powerplay overs. Rohit shifted gears and dealt in fours, sixes. In the 25th over, Paul got the breakthrough with the wicket of the opener. He went for the pull shot but had no control as the bat twisted in his hand. Teenager Jewel Andrew took the catch at deep mid-wicket. Rohit departed after scoring 92 runs from 85 balls featuring 10 fours and three sixes. When he departed, India were 141/4 in 24.4 overs. He shared a 137-run partnership with Gaikwad.
The last time he was dismissed in 90s in an ODI match was Mohali as well. In March 2019 against Australia, he fell for 92-ball 95 to Kane Richardson.
How many runs Rohit scored in the series vs West Indies?
Rohit scored 225 runs in the three-ODI series at an average of 75 and strike rate of 115.38. In the ODI series opener, he was dismissed for a 35-ball 32 in the run chase. In the second ODI, he scored a 75-ball 101. Seales dismissed him but not before a 255-run opening partnership with Gill who went on to score 223 not out. India chased down a mammoth target of 406 in 43.3 overs.
When will Rohit be in action again?
After the ODI series against West Indies, Rohit will have a break and then fly to New Zealand. India are scheduled to play a five-ODI series agianst New Zealand which will be played from November 4 to November 15. The seaming conditions of New Zealand will pose a different challenge for the 39-year-old opener. So far, he has scored 437 runs from 13 ODI innings, averaging 36.41 and a strike rate of 72.95. He has four ODI fifties on New Zealand soil. He is yet to score an ODI century in New Zealand.
Another milestone awaits Rohit
Rohit needs 322 runs in the five-ODI series against New Zealand to complete 7,000 runs in away/neutral ODIs. Rohit has 6,678 runs from 185 ODIs apart from home conditions. Other batters with 7,000 or more runs in away/neutral venues are Sachin Tendulkar (11,450 runs), Sourav Ganguly (8,253 runs), Virat Kohli (8,074 runs), Rahul Dravid (7,483 runs).