Rohit Sharma joins MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam in elite list of captains

India National Cricket Team all-format captain Rohit Sharma has done a great job as a leader in the ongoing five-match Test series against Ben Stokes-led England National Cricket Team at home.

After facing a defeat in the first Test match, Rohit Sharma guided his team to three straight wins to register yet another win in the home Test series. The fifth Test between the teams is currently underway at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala and Rohit Sharma is once again doing an exceptional job both as a leader and batsman.

The Indian captain has received praise from several quarters for his fantastic captaincy in the Test series and he has also made significant contributions with the bat for his team. Under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, Team India became the first team to declare innings against England in their Bazball era and they also became the first team to win a Test series against England under the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum regime.

Meanwhile, with his fifty in the Dharamsala Test, Rohit Sharma has achieved a massive feat as he has become the tenth Indian skipper to enter the 1,000-run club in Test cricket. Rohit, who is the fourth-highest run-getter in the ongoing series, didn’t start off well and registered a string of low scores. However, he stepped up his game in the 4th and 5th Tests and helped India win.

Overall, Rohit Sharma has scored 349 runs in 9 innings at a good average of 43.62 against England. He has also slammed one century and two half-centuries in the series.

Here is the list of Indians with 1000-plus Test runs as captain:

Virat Kohli – 5,864 runs

MS Dhoni – 3,454 runs

Sunil Gavaskar – 3,449 runs

Mohammed Azharuddin – 2,856 runs

Sourav Ganguly – 2,561 runs

MAK Pataudi – 2,424 runs

Sachin Tendulkar – 2,054 runs

Rahul Dravid – 1,736 runs

Kapil Dev – 1,364 runs

Rohit Sharma – 1,039 runs

Rohit Sharma Joins Babar Azam, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli In Elite List

The Indian skipper has also made it to a historic list of captains as he became just the 6th player in the history of cricket to score 1000 runs as captain across all three formats of the game. Before Rohit, the likes of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Faf du Plessis, and Babar Azam had achieved the feat.

1000 runs as captain in all formats:

MS Dhoni

Virat Kohli

Kane Williamson

Faf du Plessis

Babar Azam

Rohit Sharma

Coming back to the Dharamshala Test, after bundling out England for 218 on Day 1, the Indian openers batted well and stitched together a century partnership. At stumps on Day 1, India were at 135/1 in 30 overs with Rohit Sharma (52) unbeaten in the middle along with Shubman Gill (26).

Notably, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin played a key role in bowling out England for a low score. Kuldeep, who bagged a 5-wicket haul, has thrived under the leadership of Rohit across all three formats.

The exceptional performance of the left-arm wrist-spinner was highly praised by Zaheer Khan. Speaking on Colors Cineplex, Zaheer stated that Kuldeep Yadav made the batters look clueless.

“I won’t say no if you want to give him even 15 or 20 because it was a day like that for him. You need to be praised if you give such a contribution on the first day of a match as a spinner. The England batters did not have any idea, whether the ball was coming in, going out, or if it was a straighter one.”

“If you are not even able to figure that out as a batter, you will definitely have problems whether there is help from the pitch or not. Kuldeep caused those sort of problems for the England batters,” the former India pacer added.