By now everyone in the Cricketing world knows about the awesome knock of 264 runs played by Rohit Sharma against Sri Lanka, which shattered many records. Scoring a double century in ODIs even once is a terrific achievement. Doing it twice is certainly an extremely rare feat, and it is unlikely to be accomplished by any other batsman anytime soon. Certainly Rohit has scripted his way into the record books, and he will have his name safe there for a long, long time. But which avatar of Rohit Sharma did we really see in this match?
To get a better perspective, it is worthwhile looking at the career trajectory of Rohit. He was known as a player with a great batting talent even in the local circuit, and it was only a matter of when, not if, he will get into the national side. He was drafted into the national team in 2007, and was a part of the team that won the inaugural World T20 championship. He established his reputation as a solid T20 player, both in the international circuit as well as in the IPL, where he is currently the second highest run-scorer over the seven seasons of the tournament.
However, his start to the ODI career was fairly ordinary, and his batting average in the first three years was below 25. His below average performance in the ODIs earned him the moniker of “Nohit Sharma”, and were it not for the generous support of his captain MS Dhoni, he might have lost his place in the one-day squad forever. However, he was eventually able to capture his place in the team for good when he was made the opening batsman. He scored his first double century less than a year back against Australia, and of course he repeated this feat again against Sri Lanka. Clearly, barring any injuries, he is all set to make the squad for the World Cup in 2015 that will be held in Australia.
Coming back to the original question of which avatar of Rohit Sharma did we really see, we first need to have a look at his home/away split, which provides a very interesting narrative to his ODI career. Table 1 shows the batting average and strike rate of Rohit Sharma in his ODI career so far.
Table 1: Rohit’s home/away record in ODIs
| Venue | Runs | Balls | Outs | Average | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 1436 | 1436 | 23 | 62.43 | 100.00 |
| Away | 2311 | 3171 | 75 | 30.81 | 72.88 |
Rohit Sharma has an great record at home matches, in which he has scored at an average of 62.4 at run a ball. However, his away record is fairly pedestrian. Table 2 dives into this data deeper, and shows his batting records by each of the countries he has played in.
Table 2: Rohit’s record by each of the countries he has played in
| Venue | Runs | Balls | Outs | Average | Strike Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 8 | 9 | 1 | 8.00 | 88.89 |
| Sri Lanka | 281 | 380 | 20 | 14.05 | 73.95 |
| South Africa | 86 | 169 | 6 | 14.33 | 50.89 |
| Australia | 315 | 421 | 12 | 26.25 | 74.82 |
| New Zealand | 188 | 276 | 6 | 31.33 | 68.12 |
| Bangladesh | 239 | 325 | 7 | 34.14 | 73.54 |
| England | 229 | 319 | 6 | 38.17 | 71.79 |
| Pakistan | 116 | 160 | 3 | 38.67 | 72.50 |
| West Indies | 490 | 670 | 9 | 54.44 | 73.13 |
| India | 1436 | 1436 | 23 | 62.43 | 100.00 |
| Zimbabwe | 359 | 442 | 5 | 71.80 | 81.22 |
His batting record in Australia is even worse, and this is where the next World Cup is going to be held. In fact his away record has been propped up by relatively good performances against weak teams such as West Indies and Zimbabwe. So was it the lion-at-home, weak-team-bully avatar of Rohit Sharma that we saw in his record-breaking knock? Or did we see a batsman finally coming of age, ready to exploit his talent under any conditions? This is a question whose answer we will get to know only in the future.
Rohit Sharma certainly deserves the accolades for his recent exploits, but based on his past track record, there is some pessimism regarding whether his can replicate it outside of India or even the Indian sub-continent. The issue of whether he or Ajinkhya Rahane should partner with Shikhar Dhawan has been debated elsewhere as well. This is certainly a very valid debate to have, something that MS Dhoni will have to juggle with when he decides upon the strategy for defending the championship in Cricket World Cup in Australia.
So yes, we should all be really happy about what Rohit Sharma has just accomplished. But in the euphoria of celebrating his achievements, we should not forget that one inning (or even a couple) alone does not make a career, and Rohit still has a long way to go before he can be counted in the list of greatest one-day batsmen.