Rohit Sharma: From A Mediocre Test Batter To A Brilliant Opener

Despite his immense talent and potential, Rohit Sharma's ODI numbers were nothing more than ordinary for a third of his career. He had just scored 1978 runs in 81 innings at an average of 30.43 and strike rate of 77.9 with two hundreds and 12 fifties. Nothing to write home about! 23rd January, 2013, India vs England, 4th ODI, Mohali: Rohit Sharma was sent up the order to open the innings for India. He had batted as an opener three times before in 2011 but that was more of a temporary role than a motivated push. Rohit hammered a fine 83 off 93 deliveries and helped India chase down the 258-run target set by England. That innings changed something in Rohit – the ODI batter. He never looked back. India had unearthed a new star at the top the order. Since the start of 2013, Rohit – the ODI opener has amassed 8807 runs in 173 innings at a staggering average of 56.45 and strike rate of 96.29 with 29 hundreds and 44 fifties. He is widely regarded as amongst the greatest ODI openers of all-time. Fast forward to 2019.

He was already an all-time great in limited-overs cricket. He had piled on 8686 runs in ODIs in 211 innings at an average of 48.5 with 27 hundreds. He had broken innumerable records in the 2019 World Cup in England blasting 648 runs in just nine innings which included five tons! His T20I numbers were also astonishing. Only Virat Kohli had a higher aggregate and no one had registered more centuries than his four in the format. Despite these colossal feats in white-ball cricket, Rohit Sharma had struggled to make a name for himself in Test cricket as these stats suggest. 

THE STRUGGLE IN TEST CRICKET 

Rohit's numbers in Test cricket were below par for the first 27 Tests of his career - 1585 runs in 27 matches at an