India opener Rohit Sharma became the third-fastest batsman to 9,000 ODI runs, bringing up the milestone in his 217th innings, in the third ODI against Australia in Bengaluru.
Only India captain Virat Kohli (194) and retired South Africa star AB de Villiers (205) have reached the mark faster than Rohit. Overall, Rohit is the 20th man to reach the milestone and the seventh Indian to do so.
Behind him on the list are Sourav Ganguly (228) and Sachin Tendulkar (235).
Rohit got to the mark on the way to his 29th ODI hundred on January 19 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, helming India’s chase of a target of 287. With that, he moved ahead of Sanath Jayasuriya in the list of most centuries in ODI cricket, with only Tendulkar (49), Kohli (43) and Ricky Ponting (30) ahead of him.
The third-fastest man to 9000 ODI runs is in a hurry to add to that.
Rohit has made 41 of India’s 61 runs in the first 10. #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/S6KpU4mgTz
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 19, 2020
At the start of the day, he needed just four runs to get to 9,000 runs, and brought it up in the first over off Pat Cummins, having worked it to the leg side for a brace. He had looked game to get to the milestone in the previous match, but fell four runs short when attempting an extravagant sweep shot off leggie Adam Zampa.
Interestingly, Rohit had taken 82 innings to get to 2,000 runs, showing just how remarkable his rise has been since moving up to open.
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Rohit is the holder of several ODI records, including the highest individual score in the format with his epic knock of 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014. He also holds the record for most double-centuries with three to his name – no other batsman has scored more than one.
Rohit is one of the most prolific scorers against Australia in 50-over cricket, with over 2,200 runs against them in just 40 innings. At the time of writing, he averages over 62 against them. He has eight centuries against Australia: only Tendulkar, with nine, has more against that side; Kohli has eight.
