Rohit Sharma breaks Sourav Ganguly's age record in mini showdown in Hyderabad

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has successfully overtaken former India captain Sourav Ganguly in becoming the 4th highest run-scorer for the Asian giants across all formats. The 36-year-old completed this feat yesterday on day 1 of the 1st Test against England here in Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Rohit Sharma needed just 23 runs to topple Sourav Ganguly in the list of the top 5 highest run-getters for the 2-time ICC Cricket World Cup champions. And Rohit did so yesterday in Hyderabad with his short-lived innings of 24 runs off 27 deliveries and became the 4th highest scorer and he is now trailing after head coach Rahul Dravid, teammate Virat Kohli, and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

Sourav Ganguly had retired from international cricket after amassing 18,433 runs for India across all formats. He played 113 Tests, 311 ODIs, and 77 T20Is for the Men in Blue from 1992-2008. Ganguly scored 11,363 runs in the 2nd longest format, 7212 in the longest, and 1726 runs in the shortest format.

He also led the Indian team towards the 2003 ICC CWC final where they lost against Australia in South Africa, similar to Rohit Sharma who led the team to a CWC final, 2 decades later against the same opponents, enduring the very same result.

As the captain, Rohit has led India to an ICC T20 World Cup semi-final in 2022, the World Test Championship final last year as well as the CWC. Even if the Indian team played like title contenders under his leadership, the ICC silverware drought since 2013’s Champions Trophy triumph in England could not be ended.

This year, India has another golden opportunity to land an ICC trophy in the form of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 later this June at the USA and West Indies. It will not be an easy task though as it is going to be a 20-team affair in tricky conditions too.

There are talks about Rohit Sharma leading the Indian contingent instead of T20I captain Hardik Pandya who is currently working hard to attain full fitness. Rohit recently led the side during a 3-0 whitewash of Afghanistan in a T20 series before the Test series against England started.

Rohit Sharma Way Off Dravid, Kohli And Tendulkar’s Tally

Rohit Sharma was able to replace Sourav Ganguly as India’s 4th highest scorer in what was his 468th international match. Rohit currently has 18,444 runs across formats including 46 centuries and 100 half-centuries. The Nagpur-born batter has 3737 runs in Test cricket, 10,709 runs in One Dayers, and 3974 runs in the shortest format.

He is also the 2nd highest run-getter for India in the shortest format and is only behind Virat Kohli who has 4037 runs in 117 matches. While Rohit Sharma can become T20I’s highest scorer, he can’t topple Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, and Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 24,064 runs, 26,733 runs, and 34,357 runs respectively.

Given his age, Rohit Sharma might be have much time on the international scene but what he can aim to achieve is the milestone of 20,000 runs and he needs to add up another 1556 runs. Rohit will try to score half of them in the next Tests against England in Vishakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamshala.