Ritika Sajdeh is called the 17th member of the India team

The latest Indian cricketer to take over captaincy reigns, Rohit Sharma is unarguably one of their finest limited-overs cricketers. The Mumbai man has been scoring some massive runs of late. The right-hander scored an amazing 1,293 runs in ODIs in 2017 and played an integral role in India’s dominance in the recently-concluded home season.

Rohit played some stellar knocks in 2017, and in the process etched his name into the history books. The 30-year-old scored a record-breaking T20I ton in 35 balls against Sri Lanka in Indore, to become the joint-fastest to reach a ton alongside South African batsman David Miller.

Rohit also hit an incredible third double ton in ODI cricket while leading the Indian team in the 2nd ODI in Mohali and became the only person to do so. While he has three all the other batsmen have four in all.

Ritika brings the best out of Rohit 

In both the feats, there was something common besides his thrashing of the bowlers. His wife Ritika Sajdeh was present in the stands, cheering him on and it seems to have brought the best out of Rohit. And as a result, there has been some light joke doing the rounds, stating Ritika to be the 17th member of the India team. Rohit said that his wife has played an important role in helping him express freely on the cricket field.

In an interview with Cricbuzz, Rohit said, “Yeah, that’s funny. Even I heard that one. She and I definitely make a great team. She’s been a great support as a wife, friend, manager, everything and that’s just adding to the freedom with which I can express myself on the field.”

And much like himself, the love story of the swashbuckling batsman is full of young romance, a long courtship period, followed by a fairytale proposal and star-studded wedding.