Rohit Sharma - Biography

 
Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian international cricketer. He is right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm off break bowler (has hat-trick in Indian Premier League), who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket. He is the captain of Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. Having started international career at the age of 20, Sharma quickly came to be pegged by many analysts as a permanent fixture in the Indian cricket team in the next decade. In 2013, he started playing as an opening batsman for Indian ODI team, and performed well consistently. He is currently the second highest scorer in an ODI innings, scoring 209. On his Test debut, he scored a century against the West Indies in November 2013 at the Eden Gardens in the city of Kolkata and then scored 111 in his next test match making it 2 consecutive test centuries.He is the 2nd highest run getter in the ODI's in the world in 2013.
Rohit Sharma was born to Gurunath Sharma and Purnima Sharma. Rohit Sharma completed his primary education at Our Lady of Vailankanni High School Borivali, Mumbai. He was later enrolled in the Swami Vivekanand International School Borivali on a scholarship, after his talent was noticed by the school's cricket coach Dinesh Lad at a summer camp. He excelled in the Giles and Harris Shield school cricket tournaments, after which he was selected for the Mumbai Under-20
He was later chosen for India's Under-17 and Under-19 teams, and made his mark at the 2006 U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, finishing among the top run-getters in the tournament.

Playing career

List A

Rohit Sharma made his List A debut for West Zone against Central Zone in the Deodhar Trophy in March 2006;, at Gwalior. It was his unbeaten innings of 142 in 123 balls against North Zone at Udaipur in the same tournament, that brought him into the limelight. Performances for the India A sides in Abu Dhabi and Australia followed, leading to him being selected for the 30 member probables list for the Champions Trophy, although he did not make the final squad. This was before he had made his Ranji Trophy debut. He was also selected for the Challenger Trophy.

First-class

Sharma at fielding practice.

Sharma made his First-class debut for India A against New Zealand A, at Darwin in July 2006. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for his First-class side Mumbai in the 2006/2007 season. Though he was unable to contribute much in the initial matches, he scored 205 off 267 balls in the match against Gujarat. Mumbai went on to win the tournament with Sharma scoring a half century in the final against Bengal.
In October 2013 upon the retirement of Ajit Agarkar and owing to a successful captaincy stint in IPL for Mumbai Indians where he helped to win IPL as well as the Champions League T20, Rohit Sharma was appointed as the captain of the Mumbai Ranji team for the 2013-14 season.

International

Sharma was one of the debutant Indian who scored a century in his first Test match against West Indies at Kolkata on 7 November 2013. Sharma was first selected for the limited-overs matches on India's tour to Ireland in 2007. He made his One Day International debut against Ireland at Belfast,although he did not bat in the match.

Sharma during the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.

Sharma eventually made his mark at the international stage on 20 September 2007, when he led India to victory by scoring an unbeaten 50 (which came off 40 deliveries) against South Africa in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. The win reserved India a berth in the semifinals of the tournament. At one stage India were 61–4, but his partnership of 85 runs with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni helped India to post a total of 153–5. He was eventually declared Man of the Match. Sharma then proceeded to score 30 runs off 16 balls in the final against Pakistan.
Sharma scored his maiden ODI half-century against Pakistan, at Jaipur on 18 November 2007 and was selected as part of India's 16-man squad for the CB series in Australia. Here, he scored 235 runs at an average of 33.57 with 2 fifties, including his score of 66 in the 1st final at Sydney partnering Sachin Tendulkar for most of India's successful runchase.
However, Sharma's ODI performances suffered a downturn after this and his middle-order position was taken over by Suresh Raina, and eventually, Virat Kohli took his position as the reserve batsman.
In December 2009, Sharma scored a triple century in the Ranji Trophy and was recalled to the ODI team for the tri-nations tournament in Bangladesh as Tendulkar opted to rest in the series. However, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina were selected ahead of him in the playing eleven, and he did not play in any of India's five matches. In the meantime, he missed the Ranji Trophy final.
He scored his maiden ODI century (114) against Zimbabwe on 28 May 2010. He followed it up with another century in the next match of the tri-series against Sri Lanka on 30 May 2010 by scoring 101 not out.
He was dropped from the Indian squad for 2011 World Cup.
He was selected for the West Indies tour of 2011 after the IPL in a squad where senior batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and skipper MS Dhoni were rested, and Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir were out to injuries. The side was captained by Suresh Raina with Harbhajan Singh as his deputy. He contributed 26 of 23 balls (2 sixes) in the only T20I at Queen's Park Oval and strung a 71-run partnership with Subramaniam Badrinath leading to an Indian victory.
In the ODI series that followed, he carried on with his form. The first ODI was also played at Queen's Park Oval. Rohit was elected man of the match for his 68 not out of 75 balls (3 fours, 1 six). In the third ODI played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua; Sharma scored a matching-winning 86 of 91 balls. Rohit along with Harbhajan Singh got India out of trouble to win the match after they were reduced to 92 for 6. He was widely appraised for his calm and matured performance. Sharma won his first Man of the Series award for excellent batting performance throughout the ODI series. His good form continued as he bagged another Man of the series award against West Indies again but this time on Indian soil.
In 2013, he was experimented as new opening batsman for India along with the Shikhar Dhawan for the Champions Trophy. The successful starts given by this opening pair helped India win the Champions Trophy and Tri-nation series in the West Indies. His good form continued in the home series against Australia when he scored an 141 not out in Jaipur and 209 runs off 158 balls, in Bangalore. With this innings, he became the third player to score a double hundred in an ODI and with 16 sixes, he broke the world record for most sixes hit in an ODI innings. His innings of 209 is the second highest score by a batsman in an ODI, behind Virender Sehwag's 219.

Test Career

Sharma was called into the Indian Test team in February as the only reserve batsman, and when V. V. S. Laxman failed to recover from an injury. Sharma was set to make his debut, but injured himself playing football in the warm-up on the first morning of the match. It was too late to bring in a replacement batsman, so the reserve wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha had to play as a specialist batsman.
Since then Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have overtaken him and made their Test debuts in the middle order.
He was part of the squad selected to play in the Australian series.
In November 2013, during Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Test series, he made his debut at Eden Gardens in Kolkota against the West Indies. He scored a 177 which was the 2nd best score on debut by an Indian behind Shikhar Dhawan. He followed it up with a 111 not out at his home ground at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai becoming only the second Indian cricketer to score back-to-back centuries in the first two tests -- a feat which was achieved by Saurav Ganguly in 1996 in England.