The Indian captain Rohit Sharma is one of the all-time greats of the ODI game and he has got a lot of records to his name, but yesterday he added another feather to his already glorious One Day International career.
Rohit, in the first ODI between India and England at Oval, became the first Indian batsman ever to hit 250 sixes in ODI cricket. He was already India’s leading six-hitter in the 50-over format of the game, but he got to the 250 sixes mark yesterday, a feat that only three batsmen had achieved before Rohit.
The record of hitting the maximum sixes in the history of ODI cricket is currently held by Shahid Afridi who hit a total of 351 sixes in his ODI career. Afridi is closely followed by Chris Gayle who has got 331 ODI sixes to his name, but since Gayle doesn’t play ODI cricket anymore, there is no chance of him overtaking Afridi.
The third on the list is the former Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, who has retired from international cricket as well and he won’t be adding anything to his tally of 270 ODI sixes either. So, only Rohit Sharma, who is currently at 250 sixes, has any realistic chance of breaking the world record of Afridi.
MS Dhoni has hit the second most no. of sixes for India in ODI cricket after Rohit Sharma
As far as the Indian batsmen are concerned, the second on the list after Rohit, in terms of hitting the most no. of ODI sixes, is the former Indian captain MS Dhoni who hit 229 sixes in ODI cricket before retiring.
In yesterday’s ODI at Oval, Rohit Sharma got some six-hitting opportunities because the England fast bowlers deliberately bowled short to him.
Rohit had got out to short-length deliveries a couple of times in the T20I series, so it was a plan by the England bowlers to make him play his aerial pull shots again. But, in the Oval ODI, almost all the aerial pull shots by Rohit went over the fence.
