Rohit Sharma is on the verge of adding another accolade to his already illustrious career as he takes the field against Australia in the first ODI encounter in Hyderabad on Saturday. The opener is just one six away from becoming the second Indian cricket team player after MS Dhoni to hit 350 sixes in international cricket.

Dhoni achieved the feat during the second T20I against Australia in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Dhoni’s 23-ball 40-run innings included three sixes and three fours but that was not enough to clinch the encounter for the hosts.

Currently, Dhoni has 352 sixes from 526 matches while the list is topped by West Indies batsman Chris Gayle (506). When it comes to their ODI record, both Dhoni and Rohit presently stand on 215 sixes for the country but the former has hit 7 more sixes in total in his ODI career (including the 7 sixes he has hit for Asia XI against Africa XI).

During the ODI series against New Zealand, Rohit slammed two sixes in the third encounter and in the process, became the joint highest six-hitter for India with 215 hits. He currently shares the record with MS Dhoni.

In T20s, Rohit (102) needs two sixes to surpass New Zealand’s Martin Guptill and West Indies batsman Chris Gayle (both with 103 sixes) to become the batsman with the most number of sixes in T20Is.

When it comes to his opening partnership with Shikhar Dhawan, the duo need just 77 runs to complete 1000 runs for the opening wicket against the Aussies in ODIs. They will be the second opening pair to reach this landmark after West Indies’ Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.

While the duo have failed against the Aussies in recent times, managing scores of 1, 47 and 15 in the last three games, the numbers take a complete u-turn when it comes to playing at homes. Three of the four hundreds have come in India. 57.74 per cent of their runs against Australia have come in India (533/923).

First Published: Mar 01, 2019 19:51 IST