Rohit Sharma completes 20,000 international runs, joins Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli on legendary list
Former Indian national cricket team captain Rohit Sharma created history with his performance with the bat in the third ODI of the three-match series against the South Africa national cricket team.
KL Rahul-led India and Temba Bavuma-led South Africa face off in the deciding ODI series at the Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Rohit Sharma enters the 20,000 run club
The 38-year-old has looked in sensational form since his return to the One Day Internationals, and he even won the Player of the Series award in the Australian ODIs for his outstanding performances.
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He started the ODI series against South Africa on a strong note by scoring 57 runs in the opening match. However, he lost 14 points in the second game of the series.
Heading into the third ODI, Rohit was just a few runs away from the 20,000-run mark, and he easily reached the legendary milestone in the 14th over, which was achieved by Keshav Maharaj.
On the fourth ball of the 14th over, Keshav Maharaj bowled 87.9 kmph on a length, and Rohit hit it towards long off for a single. With this single, he achieved 20,000 runs in international cricket.
The legendary opener became only the fourth Indian and 14th man overall to score 20,000 runs in international cricket.
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Top 10 Indian run-getters in international cricket:
| Player | Matches | Sleeves | Works | Average | Strike rate | Hundreds | The fifties |
| SR Tendulkar | 664 | 782 | 34357 | 48.52 | 67.58 | 100 | 164 |
| To Kohli | 556 | 622 | 27910 | 52.46 | 79.37 | 84 | 144 |
| R Dravid | 504 | 599 | 24064 | 45.57 | 51.93 | 48 | 145 |
| RG Sharma | 505 | 538 | 20018 | 42.5 | 87.34 | 50 | 110 |
| SC Ganguly | 421 | 485 | 18433 | 41.42 | 62.9 | 38 | 106 |
| MS Dhoni | 535 | 523 | 17092 | 44.74 | 78.78 | 15 | 108 |
| V Sehwag | 363 | 431 | 16892 | 40.6 | 92.44 | 38 | 70 |
| M Azharuddin | 433 | 455 | 15593 | 39.77 | 66.92 | 29 | 79 |
| SM Gavaskar | 233 | 316 | 13214 | 46.2 | 48.25 | 35 | 72 |
| Yuvraj Singh | 399 | 588 | 11686 | 34.98 | 83.55 | 17 | 71 |
Overall, if you look at all three matches, I think we did well as a bowling unit – Prasidh Krishna
Speaking after the match, star pacer Prasidh Krishna said that conditions were favorable for bowling in the third match and added that he was happy with the bowling unit’s performance in the series. He clarified:
“(More favorable bowling conditions today?) I would say yes, but I wouldn’t really blame the dew or the fact that the pitch has been harder in the last couple of games as professionals, I think we are meant to face tough challenges and as bowlers we would always want to overcome them.
“A lot of the credit goes to Arsh and Harshit for the way they started. Harshit also, when he came back during that spell, he made sure to keep it very quiet, didn’t really try a lot of things and that was the pressure in itself and then for Kuldeep to come and pick those wickets.
“Overall, if you look at all three games, I think we did well as a bowling unit. I was definitely under a bit of pressure after the last game. The discussion was just about what was wrong, what can we do better and it was pretty clear because I know what I can do, I know the areas I can play in. It’s just about showing up that day and making sure you keep them simple, be calm and give yourself the best chance to execute them.
