Rohit Sharma reached 10,000 runs during the 2023 Asia Cup Super Four encounter against Sri Lanka at R Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo. He entered this match on the back of a fifty in each of his last two outings. In his previous match, against Pakistan, he smacked a stroke-filled 56 in 49 balls to give India a roaring start.

This is only the 241st innings for the ‘Hitman’, which made him the second-fastest to the milestone, after only Virat Kohli (205). He also became the first since Chris Gayle in 2019 to reach there.

In 2001, Sachin Tendulkar broke the barrier for the first time en route to a 125-ball 139 against Australia in Indore. Since then, Sourav Ganguly, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sanath Jayasuriya, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, MS Dhoni, Kohli, Gayle and now Rohit have touched the milestone.

The owner of the most ODI double-centuries (three), Rohit is only accompanied by Kohli in a small club of 10K-ers among active cricketers. With ODIs taking a backseat in the cricketing calendar, the milestone is least likely to be emulated anytime soon.

Among active cricketers, the three Bangladeshis – Tamim Iqbal (8,313), Mushfiqur Rahim (7,388), and Shakib Al Hasan (7,304) – are the only others with even 7,000 ODI runs.

Rohit did not get going immediately in his career. After 86 ODIs, he had made only 1,978 runs at an average of 30.43, with only two tons to his name. The tides turned when India promoted him as opener, and he struck a 93-ball-83 against England in 2013. At the time of writing, he and Ponting are third on the list of players with the most ODI tons (30), after Tendulkar (49) and Kohli (47).

Rohit recently expressed his wish to break Gayle’s record of hitting the most sixes in international cricket (553). He started the match against Sri Lanka on 543.

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