Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket and captains Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler. He is the vice-captain of the Indian national team in limited-overs formats.
Early life
Sharma was born on 30 April 1987 in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra.[1] His mother, Purnima Sharma, is from Visakhapatnam.[2] His father, Gurunath Sharma, worked as a caretaker of a transport firm storehouse. Sharma was raised by his grandparents and uncles in Borivali because of his father’s low income. He would visit his parents, who lived in a single-room house in Dombivli, only during weekends.[3] He has a younger brother, Vishal Sharma.[4]
Sharma joined a cricket camp in 1999 with his uncle’s money. Dinesh Lad, his coach at the camp, asked him to change his school to Swami Vivekanand International School, where Lad was the coach and the cricket facilities were better than those at Sharma’s old school. Sharma recollects, “I told him I couldn’t afford it, but he got me a scholarship. So for four years I didn’t pay a penny, and did well in my cricket”.[4] Sharma started as an off-spinner who could bat a bit before Lad noticed his batting ability and promoted him from number eight to open the innings. He excelled in the Harris and Giles Shield school cricket tournaments, scoring a century on debut as an opener.[5]
INTERNATIONAL CARRIER
As of 4 September 2021, Sharma had played in 381 international matches (43 Test, 227 ODI, 111 T20I) and scored 41 centuries (8 Test, 29 ODI, 4 T20I).[14]
Test matches
In November 2013, during Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series, Sharma made his Test debut at Eden Gardens in Kolkata against the West Indies and scored 177, the second-highest score on debut by an Indian to Shikhar Dhawan (187).[15] He followed it up with 111 (not out) in the second Test at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.[16]
Having been out of the Test team since 2017–18, Sharma went on the 2018–19 tour of Australia after he had earned a recall earlier. Chief selector M. S. K. Prasad said the reason for his recall was that his natural game suited the bouncy Australian pitches.[17] Sharma played in the first Test in Adelaide, scoring 37 and 1 in an Indian victory.[18][19] During the first Test, he sustained a minor injury which saw him miss the second Test in Perth.[20] He recovered for the Boxing Day third Test at Melbourne and scored 63 (not out) to help India total 443/7 and win both the Test and the series.[21] After the third Test, Sharma had to return to India for the birth of his daughter.[22]
In October 2019, in the third Test against South Africa, Sharma scored his 2,000th run and his first double century in Tests. He made 212 in the first innings of the match.[23][24] Sharma was named as vice-captain of India’s Test team during the tour of Australia in 2020, replacing Cheteshwar Pujara.[25][26][27]
SACHIN CHAVAN 