After Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma became the second Indian opener to score 16,000 international runs while opening the batting on Saturday, adding another feather to his famous crown.
Rohit, a 39-year-old veteran who scored 16 runs, including two boundaries and a six, in his 384th innings as an opener for India, needed six runs to reach the milestone ahead of the opening ODI against Afghanistan in Dharamsala.
Only seven batters in international cricket have scored more than 16,000 runs as an opener, including Rohit. Some of the biggest names in the game, like Sanath Jayasuriya, Chris Gayle, David Warner, Graeme Smith, Desmond Haynes, and Sehwag, are on the list.
With 19,298 runs as an opener, Jayasuriya leads the all-time chart, followed by Gayle (18,867) and Warner (18,744). Sehwag continues to be India’s highest-scoring opener with 16,119 runs in 400 innings.
Surprisingly, despite having amassed over 34,000 runs across forms, Sachin Tendulkar, who owns numerous significant batting records in international cricket, does not belong to the 16,000-run club of openers, finishing with 15,335 runs.
Rohit has amassed 11,577 runs in 282 ODIs, 4,301 in 67 Tests, and 4,231 in 159 T20 Internationals prior to the match against Afghanistan. The fashionable right-hander is still breaking records in the 50-over format after having retired from Tests and Twenty20 Internationals.
During the run-a-ball knock, the 39-year-old Mumbaikar also surpassed South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis’ ODI total of 11,579 runs. In 328 games, Kallis made it there; in his 283rd ODI, Rohit overtook him.
Tendulkar currently leads the ODI cricket most run-scorers standings with 18,246 runs, while Rohit has climbed to eighth position.
