30 Unique Facts About The Famous Cricketer Rohit Sharma You Probably Didn't Know

25 June 2019, 3:11 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Rohit Sharma, the vice-captain of the India national team in limited-overs formats, is the only player in the history of the game to score three double hundreds in One Day International Cricket. He is also the first cricketer to score four centuries in T20 international cricket. Here are some facts about the Indian international cricketer:

The right hand batsman is better known as ‘The Hitman,’ is currently the Indian cricket team vice-captain of the One Day International and Twenty20 team.
In the ongoing 2019 Cricket World Cup in England, he scored 122 runs against South Africa in the opening encounter to guide India to victory. He has to his credit 12,105 runs in the international cricket for India.
He was born Rohit Gurunath Sharma, on April 30, 1987, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, to Gurunath Sharma, a caretaker of a transport firm storehouse and Purnima Sharma, a housewife from Visakhapatnam. He has a younger brother Vishal Sharma.
The financial hardship of his family forced him live with his grandparents and uncle at Borivali and would visit his parents every weekend.
At the age of eight he took to cricket and joined summer cricket coaching camp, with the help of his uncle. The coach Dinesh Lad at the camp seeing his potential arranged for sports scholarship and asked him to shift to Swami Vivekanand International School, which has better cricketing facilities under his leadership.
Rohit Sharma primarily an off-spinner who could bat a bit was promoted to open the innings and scored an unbeaten 120 on his debut in the Harris and Giles Shield School cricket tournament. That year he scored many more runs as an opener.
Sharma made his List-A debut for West Zone against Central Zone on February 25, 2005 for the Deodhar Trophy and scored unbeaten 31 of 47 balls for a winning cause. Hailing from a lower-middle-class family, he thoroughly enjoyed his moment of success and gained a lot of confidence from it.
In the same tournament he identifies his knock of 142 in 123 balls against North Zone, as a turning point in his career. He was soon drafted into the Board President XI against England and then was named in the India-A side for the Eurasia Cup in Abu Dhabi.
Rohit Sharma was the first Indian to score hundred in Twenty20 format when he did it against Gujarat in a Syed Musthaq Ali trophy way back in 2005 and came into reckoning of the Indian selectors.
Making his First-Class debut for India-A, he scored 57 and 22, against New Zealand-A, in July 2006, even before making his appearance in the Ranji Trophy, the premier domestic competition.

Rohit Sharma was drafted into Mumbai team for the 2006-07, Ranji Trophy competition and helped it win the championship by aggregating 531 runs in 11 innings at an average of 48.27, with a centuries and three half centuries. He had highest score of 205 of 267 balls in the game against Gujarat.
He donned India colors for the first time on June 23, 2007, in the match against Ireland, in a One Day Internationals but didn’t get to bat.
Rohit Sharma made his Twenty20 debut during the ICC World T20 in South Africa, against England, on September 19, 2007, but once again didn’t get to bat. However, he made his mark on September 20, 2007, when he scored a match saving unbeaten 50 against South Africa in the ICC World T20, and played his part in the finals with score of 30 off 16 balls to lift first T20 World Cup.
On December 15, 2009, Rohit Sharma scored a triple century in the Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat. He scored 309 runs in 322 with 38 fours and 4 sixers and was recalled to tri-nation tournament in Bangladesh, after losing his form and place to Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli earlier.
In February 2010 he had freakish injury on the morning of the Test match against South Africa in Nagpur just before the toss in which he was set make his debut.Subsequently others established themselves in the middle order.
He scored his maiden One Day International century on the tour of Zimbabwe. On May 28, 2010, in the match against the host, Sharma scored 114 of 119, to lift India to respectable total from 3 down for 61. He scored 69 of the last 36 he faced before he was caught by Taylor of Mpofu.
Two days later he followed it up with another century this time against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo. Rohit Sharma’s 101 not out along with Virat Kohli’s 82, overhauled Sri Lanka’s total with nearly seven overs to spare.
Rohit Sharma was the surprise omission from the 2011 World Cup team. He had a poor form in the series against South Africa prior to World Cup, with score of 11, 9, 23, 1, 5 in the five ODIs and 53 in the only T20 game.
He won his first Man of the Series on his recall to the Indian team for the tour of West Indies in 2011, to play in the limited overs matches. He aggregated 257 runs at an average of 128.50 which includes three half-centuries. He also had useful 26 in the lone T20 international.
His 305 runs in five matches at an average of 76.25 with three half-centuries including two 90 plus score in the series against West Indies tour of India in 2011-12, earned him his second successive Man of the Series award.

Rohit Sharma’s form went for spin in July 2012, when he scored only 13 runs in the entire series against Sri Lanka, with single digit score. He was retained in the team despite aggregating 168 runs at an average of 12.92 in the entire 2012 season with one score of fifty.
He is the third Indian cricketer to score back to back centuries in his debut in Tests, after M. Azharuddin and S. Ganguly. He made his Test debut in November 2013 in Kolkata, in the first Test against West Indies, and scored 177 and won the Player of the Match in his very first test. In the second test he scored 111 not out.
On November 13, 2014, Rohit Sharma recorded the highest individual score in One Day Internationals with 264 runs against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He is the only player with three double centuries in ODIs with 209 against Australia in 2013 and 208 against Sri Lanka in 2017.
With his score of 264, he also recorded most runs from sixes and fours in an innings by scoring 186 runs in boundaries with 9 sixers and 33 fours to break the record of Shane Watson.
He is the second Indian captain to score a double century in ODIs after Virender Sehwag and is the only player with seven 150 plus score in ODIs in the world.
On November 6, 2018 he scored 111 not out in Twenty20 internationals against West Indies and in the process became the first batsman to score four centuries in T20Is.
Sharma is recipient of the ‘Arjuna Award’ for 2015 and GQ Sportsperson of the Year 2015. In February 2018, he was awarded Shiv Chhatrapati State Sports Award by the Government of Maharashtra.
He is one of the most successful player in Indian Premier League with more than 4000 runs and the first captain to win four IPL titles. He also has a century and a hat-trick to his name in the IPL.
Rohit Sharma got married to his longtime girlfriend Ritika Sajdeh in Mumbai on December 13, 2015, and they are blessed with a baby girl named Samaira on December 30, 2018.
As the member of PETA, he has joined anti-poaching campaign in Africa and has lent his name and ODI jersey No. 45 to the online store to merchandise mobile phone to generate fund for animal charity of his choice.