Rohit Sharma Creates History, Becomes Only The 2nd Indian To...

Rohit Sharma has become the second Indian men’s cricketer to score 16,000 runs in international cricket as an opener. He joined Virender Sehwag in the elite list with a massive six against Azmatullah Omarzai in the first ODI of the India-Afghanistan series at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala.

Overall, he’s the seventh player to do so after Sanath Jayasuriya, Chris Gayle, David Warner, Graeme Smith, Desmond Haynes, and Sehwag.

Most runs in men’s international cricket as an opener:

Player	Team	Span	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	100s	50s
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	1993–2011	506	19,298	340	35.86	41	95
Chris Gayle	West Indies	2000–2021	441	18,867	333	39.80	42	102
David Warner	Australia	2009–2024	374	18,744	335*	42.89	49	97
Graeme Smith	South Africa	2002–2014	342	16,950	277	42.69	37	88
Desmond Haynes	West Indies	1978–1994	354	16,120	184	41.87	35	96
Virender Sehwag	India	2001–2013	332	16,119	319	41.54	36	67
Rohit Sharma	India	2009–2026	359	16,009*	264	45.35	45	83
Sachin Tendulkar	India	1994–2012	346	15,335	200*	48.07	45	75
Tamim Iqbal	Bangladesh	2007–2023	391	15,210	206	35.20	25	94
Alastair Cook	England	2006–2018	250	15,110	294	42.44	36	74

It wasn’t a pleasant match for Rohit otherwise. Azmatullah Omarzai opened the bowling against him and surprised him with a body-line bouncer on the third ball, which hit the right-hander on the gloves.

Rohit was in serious pain and needed prolonged attention from the physios. He didn’t look completely

at ease after that, though still managing to hit some amazing shots — a backfoot punch against Zia Ur Rahman and then, on the third ball of the third over, a commanding pull over deep square-leg to another bouncer from Omarzai to reach the landmark 16,000 runs.

But soon after, a poor miscommunication between him and his opening partner, Shubman Gill, led to the former India skipper getting out. Rohit pushed a ball from Allah Ghazanfar and called for a run but Gill got stuck behind the bowler, who was trying to gather the ball.

Gill seemed to loudly deny the single multiple times, but Rohit, perhaps believing that he could escape and get ahead of the bowler, ran down the ground and couldn’t reach back in time. He was out for a run-a-ball 16.