Not only Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal got India off to a flying start in their chase of a target of 271 in the third ODI against South Africa in Visakhapatnam on Saturday, their opening stand of 155 was instrumental in the team’s nine-wicket victory for a 2-1 series win.
With his 61st ODI half-century in 54 balls, Rohit in particular was in great touch. However, he was unable to turn it into his 34th century in the format, losing to Keshav Maharaj on 75 off 73 balls in the 26th over.
The former skipper of India completed 20,000 career runs in international cricket when he took a single on the fourth ball of the 14th over off Maharaj to move to 27. After his 75-run knock, Rohit now has 20,048 international runs.
Along with his longtime teammate Virat Kohli and fellow batting greats Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, Rohit is only the fourth Indian player to surpass the record.
Before coming on to bat at No. 3, Kohli had 27910 runs and he remained unbeaten on 65 to further swell his tally to 27,975 international runs.
With Rohit as captain, Dravid led India to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup last year as head coach. He retired with 24,208 runs. In 2013, Tendulkar, who had shared the Indian dressing room with Rohit during the latter’s formative years, finished with 34,357 runs.
Tendulkar is the all-time top run scorer in international cricket, while Kohli comes in third, behind the legendary Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka. Dravid is ranked seventh on the all-time list, while Rohit surpassed AB de Villiers of South Africa to reach number thirteen.
