Rohit Sharma creates history, joins Sachin Tendulkar and India legends in iconic 5-man list

India National Cricket Team superstar opening batsman Rohit Sharma has created history with his appearance in the ODI series opener against the Australia National Cricket Team on Sunday, October 19.

Shubman Gill-led India and Mitchell Marsh-led Australia are currently locking horns with each other in the first ODI match of the three-match series at the iconic Perth Stadium.

Rohit Sharma completes 500 international matches

Shubman Gill lost his maiden toss as the captain of India and they were invited to bat first in the match. It was the 16th consecutive toss lost in ODIs by India, with their last win coming in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

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Rohit Sharma was named in the India playing XI along with the comeback man Virat Kohli, and with this appearance, the legendary opener completed 500 international matches in cricket for India.

India is the powerhouse of world cricket, or as Ravi Shastri says, "the Big Daddy of world cricket," and has produced several absolute legends of the game over the years.

However, only very few of them have such long careers that they have featured in 500 international matches. The first person to achieve the feat was the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, and he ended his career with 664 international matches.

The next three players to reach the legendary landmark were Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli, and now Rohit Sharma has become the fifth Indian to make 500 appearances for India in international cricket.

Most appearances for India in Internationals:

664 Sachin Tendulkar

551 Virat Kohli *

535 MS Dhoni

504 Rahul Dravid

500 Rohit Sharma *

Rohit Sharma flops on cricket comeback

The expectations were pretty high from Rohit as he was making his comeback to cricket after a long period of time. Also, with captaincy being taken away from him, many expected him to respond to the selectors by making big runs with the bat.

Rohit put in hard yards in the nets before traveling to Australia, and he worked really hard in the gym to shed some weight. After landing in Perth, he looked rusty initially during the net session, but quickly git settled.

However, all that hard work went in vain as he scored just 8 runs off 14 balls in the first ODI match against the Aussies. He fell to Josh Hazlewood on the fourth ball of the 4th over as he edged the delivery to second slip.

He has worked really hard for the last six months to reduce 10 kilos - Pravin Amre

Speaking ahead of the start of the India vs Australia series, former India coach Pravin Amre revealed that Rohit Sharma lost 10 kilograms of weight and urged the Indian team management not to force him into retirement.

"He is the most senior player in this team, and I think he should play like that. Team management should also give that room for him to grow, give time now, and just enjoy his batting. I think the more he enjoys his batting, the more of a match-winner he can become. Also, he won't have the burden of captaincy, so we want the match-winner Rohit now. I think he is still capable of that," Amre told RevSportz.

"I was there when he was doing training at BKC. When I saw him, I told him that a fit body will have a fit mind, because he has worked really hard for the last six months to reduce 10 kilos," Amre said.

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