How Rohit Sharma leading from the front put India on top in ICC World Cup 2023

Indian captain Rohit Sharma's outstanding batting has become a key force propelling Team India's ICC World Cup 2023 campaign forward. It is safe to say that his exceptional performance has silenced his critics.

Leaading from the front

• Rohit Sharma's transformation in this World Cup defied early expectations. Despite a shaky start with a duck against Australia, he rebounded impressively, tallying one century, two fifties, and two 40s in his next five innings.

• His stellar batting played a pivotal role in propelling India to a top-of-the-rest position in the points table.
• In the second of six games, Indian batters struggled on a slow pitch, much like their earlier game in Chennai.
• Rohit fell early again, but this time the target wasn't too high, and Kohli managed things smoothly. .

• At the Ekana Stadium, the Indian batters faced a similar challenge on an uneven pitch. Rohit stepped up after Kohli's quick dismissal, just as he had in Chennai.

• Rohit's 87 off 101 balls helped India reach 229 runs.

• During this innings, Rohit achieved two milestones—he crossed 1,000 runs in ODIs for the year and 4,000 runs in international cricket as India's captain.

A turnaround after a poor IPL show

• The Indian skipper's campaign raised concerns after a tough IPL season.

• Former Indian selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth criticized Rohit Sharma earlier this year, saying, "Rohit Sharma should change his name to 'No hit Sharma'; I would not even play him in XI if I were Captain of MI."

• Rohit struggled significantly this season despite attempting to lead his team by example. He scored only 332 runs at an average of 20.75, even in favorable batting conditions at Wankhede.
• With young batters in the team and challenging conditions away from home, the responsibility was on Rohit to lead his side to victories, which he couldn't achieve this season.

Records broken and milestones achieved

• During India's match against Afghanistan in the World Cup, Rohit achieved a century in just 63 balls, setting a new record for the fastest century by an Indian player in a Cricket World Cup, surpassing Kapil Dev's 40-year-old record.
• With this century, Rohit now has seven Cricket World Cup centuries, outshining Sachin Tendulkar.

• Rohit also became one of the joint-fastest players, alongside David Warner, to reach 1000 runs in Cricket World Cups, achieving this milestone in just 19 innings.

• Rohit hit five sixes in the game against Afghanistan, taking his total across all three formats of international cricket to 556 sixes, surpassing the previous record-holder, Chris Gayle.

• Rohit is the sole captain in the Cricket World Cup 2023 to have scored a century at this stage of the tournament. This century was Rohit's 31st in ODIs, pushing him ahead of Ricky Ponting and securing the third spot in the list of total ODI centuries.

• The match against England at Eden Gardens, Kolkata was Rohit Sharma's 100th match as the captain of the Indian team.

• Rohit holds the top win-percentage among Indian captains at 73.73%, securing 73 victories in his 99 previous matches as captain.