- By Talib Khan
- Fri, 17 Jan 2020 07:44 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran Sports Desk: Indian opener and vice-captain Rohit Sharma on Friday became the fastest batsman to reach 7,000 runs milestone as an opener. With this Sharma left South African opener Hashim Amla and Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar behind. Rohit reached the milestone during the second One Day International against Australia at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot.
Rohit Sharma reached this feat in 137 innings, while Hashim Amla, who is now on the second spot took 147 innings to reach the milestone. Sachin Tendulkar, on the other hand, had completed 7,000 ODI runs as an opener in 160 innings.
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Rohit also became the fourth Indian opener to complete 7,000 ODI runs. Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag are the three other batsmen to have reached this milestone.
Indian vice-captain, who had failed to score big during the first ODI in Mumbai, looked in a strong form before getting dismissed by Adam Zampa on 42 in 44 deliveries. Zampa also dismissed Kohli for the second consecutive time.
However, Rohit missed out on completing another record as he fell four runs short of reaching 9,000 runs in ODIs. Even though Rohit started as a middle-order batsman in the Indian team, then skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni promoted him to the top during the 2013 Champions Trophy.
There has been no looking back for Rohit since and commenting on Dhoni's move, the batsman had said, "I believe the decision to open in ODIs changed my career and it was a decision taken by Dhoni. I became a better batsman after that. In fact, it helped me understand my game better, react better according to situations”.
"He (Dhoni) just came up to me and said 'I want you to open the innings as I am confident that you will do well. Since you can play both cut and pull shot well, you have the qualities to succeed as an opener'," he added.
