Rohit Sharma, you beauty!

If you were to define the beauty of batting, Rohit Sharma is one of the few batsmen who’d come to your mind. When in his zone, Rohit Sharma, or ‘hitman’, is the most beautiful batsman to watch in the whole world. No, that’s not an overstatement. The charisma with which he manufactures his shots is worth consuming. This is not something the viewers are privy to; Rohit manages to churn out such innings more frequently than ever. Be it his 209* vs Australia or his 264 against Srilanka. Be it his 171 vs Australia or his most recent 208* against Srilanka. In fact, if I look at his numbers, only 3 out of his 16 ODI centuries have been less than 120. This tells us that when he scores a century, he makes it big (what better metric than his 3 double-tons). His template is fairly basic and beneficial to him – be watchful for the first 10 overs, start accelerating in the next 30 overs and go berserk in the last 10 overs.

Following an embarrassing loss against Srilanka in the 1st ODI in Dharamshala, Hitman was under the radar (pun intended). To add to that, he was captaining India for the first time in his career. Yet, in the 2nd ODI, not only did he score his third double century in ODI cricket, he was spot on with his bowling changes, field placements and whatnot! His innings in this match was laced with artistic shots mixed with brute force. While he caressed and nudged the ball initially, he started slapping the ball over the boundary delivery after delivery after delivery. Almost makes you wonder that why he doesn’t play such innings often, like Virat Kohli! Well, that’s the thing about artistic players – there only seldom reveal their act.

When Rohit Sharma entered the International Circuit in 2007, he was already touted as a batsman with exceptional ability to time the ball. It’d be safe to say that he did justice to that for the better part of his first 1 and a half years. Then came a downslide which was arrested only when he was promoted as an opener in the 2013 Champions Trophy. From then, he has never looked back. He won the IPL in 2013 as captain (before the 2013 Champions Trophy), scored his first double century in ODI later that year.

Having gone over his achievements as a batsman and some statistics, it looks like marriage agrees with him. Is there some correlation between a new marriage and immediate success! Kapil Dev won the 1983 World Cup after getting married in 1980, M S Dhoni won the 2011 World Cup and 2 IPLs after getting married in 2010. Rohit Sharma got married in April 2015 and since then has won the IPL in 2015 and 2017, scored his 3rd double century in ODI, became the 2nd captain to score a double century in ODI, captained India, scored his first T20I century, scored the most number of runs in an ODI innings by a visiting batsman in Australia and many others. He has 3 double centuries in ODI, others combined have 4.

It is not too early to say it now – he has finally matured into a wonderful batsman, a good leader and a brilliant fielder. He has become a mainstay of the Indian limited overs lineup and a lot rides on him for the 2019 World Cup. He has come a long way from throwing away starts to converting centuries into 150s and into double centuries. Hitman has seen his share of the bench and committed his share of mistakes. But, now, it looks like he’s not going to do either of them anytime soon, not consciously at least. The sound of the ball hitting the bat of Rohit Sharma, when he’s in full flow, is more beautiful than that of any other player’s bat. If you don’t believe me, watch the highlights of the 2nd ODI between India and Srilanka, 13 December, 2017.