Rohit Sharma’s third double ton: Here’s why we should thank MS Dhoni!

Rohit played an unbeaten 153-ball 208, comprising 13 fours and 12 sixes

By: Karan Nanda |
December 14, 2017 11:51 am

India’s stand-in captain Rohit Sharma has been receiving acclaim from all over the globe after he became the first cricketer to score three double hundreds in One-Day Internationals (ODI). Rohit achieved this historic feat during the second ODI match against Sri Lanka at the PCA stadium in Mohali on December 13.

Rohit, who is leading the side in Virat Kohli’s absence, led from the front with his third ODI double century to help India post a mammoth 392/4 against Sri Lanka in the second ODI which Team India won by 141 runs.

Rohit played an unbeaten 153-ball 208, comprising 13 fours and 12 sixes. He smashed Sri Lankan bowlers all around the park. He even had smashed 4 consecutive sixes off Suranga Lakmal’s over during the match.

A captain’s knock. @ImRo45 has looked in full flow and has marched on to a well-made century. ODI Century no. 16 #TeamIndia #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/qWtwNpp7dr

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 13, 2017

This was Rohit’s third double ton in white-ball cricket. Rohit’s first double ton was against Australia in 2013 in Bengaluru. In his 158-ball 209, the Mumbai right-hander also made a world record of hitting 16 sixes. One year later, Rohit went on to score another double century. This time it was against Sri Lanka. Rohit scored 264 in 2014 at Eden Gardens, making him the highest individual ODI scorer.

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Interestingly, Rohit scored all his double tons while opening the innings for Team India. But very few of his fans would know that in his initial days, he was not considered as the opening batsman.

How can we let our double centurion @ImRo45 go without cutting a _ but @ajinkyarahane88 and @yuzi_chahal were not going to stop at that. #TeamIndia #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/QP27ZWexsD

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 13, 2017

It was MS Dhoni who took the decision while he was captaining the Indian ODI side to promote Rohit Sharma up the order. Initially, Rohit used to bat at No 6.

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During the 2015 World Cup after Rohit scored 137 off 126 balls in the quarter-final against Bangladesh, MS Dhoni said,

We felt he was bit of a waste of talent if he was batting at No 6 for us because more often than not he wasn’t getting enough chance to bat as our top-order was quite fixed. We couldn’t really make him play or give him enough opportunities

Initially, Dhoni was criticised for removing Gambhir and Sehwag from the opening slots. But, now, as it turns out, his decision is proving right and in Team India’s favour.

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Since he made his debut in colour jersey in 2007 against Ireland, Rohit is only behind Virender Sehwag in terms of the highest individual score by captains in ODIs. Sehwag had scored 219 against West Indies in 2011.