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Rohit Sharma owns 2019: How 'Hitman' challenged Virat Kohli for India's best batsman tag

Rohit Sharma owns 2019: How 'Hitman' challenged Virat Kohli for India's best batsman tag in a year in which he shone bright in all three formats of cricket.

Rohit Sharma owns 2019

Bengaluru, December 24: It is difficult to imagine a batsman playing on the same level as Virat Kohli let alone surpassing him in modern times. Of course, Steve Smith had a wonderful Ashes and Mayank Agarwal made a bull run in Tests but Kohli was ahead of them all as an all-format batsman. But one player matched Kohli and at times surpassed him in the year 2019. Rohit Sharma.

Rohit was India's standout batsman in ODIs, made a big impact while opening the batting and was no less a performer in T20Is too. MyKhel takes a look at Rohit's year in numbers and traces his exceptional 2019.

1. The King of ODIs

1. The King of ODIs

Rohit made 1490 runs from 27 innings at 57.30 with seven hundreds, and five of them came in the ICC World Cup 2019 alone. No batsmen in 2019 scored more ODI hundreds than Rohit's 7 and only Sachin Tendulkar has scored more ODI hundreds in a calendar year - 9. Rohit left Kohli behind as the Indian skipper made 1377 runs from 25 innings with five hundreds at 59.86. Shai Hope, Aaron Finch and Babar Azam made the top five batsmen in ODIs. Across the formats, Rohit made 2442 runs in 2019, just 13 runs behind Kohli's 2455 and they formed the 1-2 in run-makers' list.

2. Hit Man and Perfect Partner

2. Hit Man and Perfect Partner

Rohit's pet name is Hit Man and it is not just a fancy name among fans. The stats will underline that. In 2019, Rohit smoked 78 sixes and 244 fours across the formats, more than any other batsman. It's not all about individual glory too as Rohit was involved in making 1000 runs with KL Rahul for the opening wicket. Rohit and Rahul made six 100-run partnerships too in 2019, matched only by England openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow.

3. Brilliant run in Test

3. Brilliant run in Test

Even when Rohit was scorching the white ball format, his record in Test cricket stood as an anomaly. Batted in the middle-order throughout his career in Tests, Rohit got a promotion as opener this year against South Africa in a three-Test series at home. Perhaps, it was a last-dice move to save his red-ball career and the Mumbaikar grabbed it with both the hands. He amassed 529 runs in the series against SA at a whopping average of 132.25.

Rohit is fourth in the list of Indian batsmen who scored heavily in a three-Test series - Kohli (610 vs SL, 2017), Virender Sehwag (544 vs Pakistan, 2005) and Sourav Ganguly (534 vs Pakistan, 2007) are ahead of him. Even though, Kohli (612), Mayank (754) and Ajinkya Rahane (642) scored more runs than Rohit, the Mumbaikar took only six innings to score 556 runs at a whopping average of 92.66 with three hundreds.

4. The T20 force

4. The T20 force

Rohit Sharma shone in T20Is too. Virat Kohli was India's best batsman in this format by a good distance. But Rohit made 396 runs from 14 innings to keep himself close on the heels of Kohli. Kohli made most runs across the formats and scored most runs in T20Is and made more runs than Rohit in Test cricket. But for sheer impact and effect on India's wins, Rohit made the year 2019 his own.

Story first published: Tuesday, December 24, 2019, 11:36 [IST]
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