'He truly deserves it' - Fans thrilled as Rohit Sharma wins the ICC ODI Player of the Year award

Rohit Sharma had an exceptional 2019 with the bat and deserves the award.

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Rohit Sharma
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Rohit Sharma. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Before 2013, it was frustrating to watch Rohit Sharma bat. There was a lot of promise but it didn’t meet performances. There were flashes of brilliance but the consistency was a big factor. From 86 ODI games, he averaged just 30.42 while amassing 1978 runs.

However, 2013 turned the tide for him. He started opening the batting and that has been the best thing to have ever happened to Rohit in his career so far. He started getting the big scores, the consistency was there and he became one of the best opening batsmen in white-ball cricket. In fact, Rohit Sharma along with skipper Virat Kohli have become the heart of India’s batting line-up.

Year after year, Rohit kept producing good numbers but 2019 was without a doubt his best year. After coming second-best in 2017 and 2018 despite aggregating more than 1000 runs in the calendar year in ODI cricket, Rohit Sharma went one better this time. The Indian vice-captain finished 2019 as the leading run-getter in ODI cricket. He scored a staggering 1490 runs at an average of 57.31.

Rohit Sharma’s breakthrough World Cup

Rohit also scored six half-centuries and seven ODI tons last year which is the joint second-most in a calendar year. Barring New Zealand and Afghanistan, the Mumbai-born batsman scored a ton against every opposition he played against in 2019. He has been India’s bank at the top of the order and was the man for the big occasions.

Out of those 1490 runs, 648 of them came in the 2019 World Cup as he ended that tournament as the highest run-getter as well. He averaged 81.00 in the mega tournament in England where he smashed five hundreds. This is the sixth instance of an Indian winning the ICC ODI cricketer of the year. MS Dhoni was the first Indian to win the award.

In fact, he was the first-ever cricketer to win the ICC ODI player of the year twice in a row in 2008 and 2009. Virat Kohli won the same award in 2012 but he replicated the feat in 2017 and 2018 as well. In both these years, Kohli finished at the top of the ODI batting charts and Rohit was second-best. However, in 2019, Rohit overtook everybody, including Kohli to finish at the top and also, win the ICC ODI cricketer of the year.

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