Cricket News

Ishant Sharma calls Rohit Sharma as the best T20I batsman in the country

Indian speedster Ishant Sharma has rated Indian captain Rohit Sharma as the best Indian batsman in the T20 format ever. Ishant Sharma, who was a guest on sports anchor Jatin Sapru’s Youtube series ‘The Warm-up Show’, revealed his admiration for the Indian captain’s strokeplay in the shortest format of international cricket.

Making his debut way back in 2007, Rohit has gone on to score 3313 runs in the T20 format in 117 innings with an average of 32.48 and a strike rate of 139.55. He holds the record for the most runs scored in the format along with most centuries. The star batter has clobbered 4 centuries and 26 half-centuries in T20Is.

Rohit made his T20I debut against England during the inaugural 20-20 world cup in 2007, the star batter didn’t get a chance to bat in the game. He went on to score his first half-century in the very first outing as a batsman in T20 internationals as he scored a magnificent 50 off 40 balls against South Africa. He played another brilliant knock against Pakistan in the final of the tournament, scoring 30 runs in just 16 balls that helped India propel their total to 157.

Rohit’s numbers in international cricket improved dramatically since he started to open for team India. He scored his first hundred against South Africa in 2015 at Dharamsala. He went on to score three more hundreds against Sri Lanka, England and West Indies. He also jointly holds the record for the fastest hundred in T20Is in 35 balls.

Rohit faces tough competition from his team-mate Virat Kohli who’s second on the list of most runs scored in T20 internationals. Kohli has 3,296 runs to his name, just 17 runs behind Rohit. Kohli has a stunning average of 51.50 in the format with a strike rate of 137 and 30 half-centuries to his name. Kohli has also won the ‘Player of the tournament’ award for the 2014 and 2016 20-20 world cups consecutively.

The duo of Kohli and Rohit will hold the key for India in the upcoming 20-20 and ODI world cups. They will be desperate to make a statement through their performances as they’re going through a rough patch in their cricketing careers.