Indian captain Rohit Sharma crossed the 10,000-run mark in ODI cricket on Tuesday. The 36-year-old achieved the feat during an Asia Cup Super 4 match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. From playing as a middle-order batsman in his early days to becoming the fastest opener to reach the milestone of 8,000 ODI runs, Rohit has come a long way since his debut in 2007. During his initial years with the Indian team, Rohit found it was difficult to crack the code until legendary India captain MS Dhoni turned him into an opener.
Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir pointed out the importance of Dhoni in Rohit’s career as he reflected on the important decision the former India skipper made in promoting the Hitman higher up.
“Scoring 10,000 runs was not easy for him. I have seen a lot of ups and downs. After seeing that phase, Rohit as captain will support youngsters who are going through a tough period. Rohit Sharma is Rohit Sharma today because of MS Dhoni,” says Gambhir. said on Star Sports.
Gambhir believes that Rohit will have to do the same job as Dhoni, in terms of how he will support the upcoming players, to leave a strong legacy.
“MS has continuously supported him in his first difficult phase. If he wants to leave a legacy, not in terms of runs but as a captain, a lot will depend on how he supports the young players. It will be interesting to see how he looks after the upcoming players,” he added.
Gambhir also recalled his first impression on Rohit, and how confident he was that the star player would do wonders in the years to come.
“Rohit was playing against my team in a home match and my team score was 350 and Rohit came at number 5 and scored 130 runs and made his team win the match in tough conditions. I asked Wasim Jaffer who is this guy, from there The day that I knew this man was special, he recalled.
Notably, Rohit is the sixth Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Dhoni to score 10,000 or more runs in ODI cricket.
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