Rohit Sharma becomes the 2nd fastest to complete 4000 ODI runs as an opener

It was a day of milestones for Rohit Sharma as the Indian opening batsman completed 2000 ODI runs in India and 6000 runs in his ODI career. He struck his 14th ODI century and his 4th in 2017 in the 5th ODI game against Australia. Rohit thumped a brilliant 125-run knock and took away the Man of the match award. This innings powered him to end up as the highest run-getter of the series with 296 runs.

At the score of eight runs, Rohit completed 2000 ODI runs in India and became the quickest to the milestone. Later when he reached 92, the 30-year-old became the only 9th Indian and 3rd quickest to complete 6000 runs in ODI cricket. Earlier when on 59, the Indian vice-captain reached another milestone, 4000 ODI runs as an opener. If he hadn’t turned an opener would’ve been impossible for Rohit to end up as the 3rd quickest Indian to reach 6000 ODI runs, as he was once the 3rd slowest to get to the 2000-run milestone.

By completing 4000 runs as an opener, Rohit became the 5th Indian and 27th player overall to achieve this feat. The Indian limited-overs star took just 83 innings to get to 4000 runs while opening the innings and thus became the 2nd quickest in terms of innings to achieve the mark. He stood behind only Hashim Amla, who got to 4000 ODI runs as an opener in his 79th inning. The next fastest behind Rohit to complete 4000 runs while opening in ODIs is David Warner (93), who needed ten innings more than his Indian counterpart.

Among the Indian players in the list, Sachin Tendulkar was the previous quickest to complete the milestone taking 96 innings. He is one of the six players who reached 4000 runs as an opener in this format in less than 100 innings. Rohit and Sachin are the only Indians to find a place among these six players.

Fastest to 4000 runs as an opener in ODI cricket:

(Stats as on October 1, 2017)