India vs Pakistan: Rohit Sharma Continues Insatiable Appetite With Sparkling Hundred

Pakistan would have hoped to see the back of Rohit Sharma early in the Indian innings at Old Trafford. Of the 51 times Rohit has batted since the Champions Trophy in England in 2017, he has crossed a single-digit score 37 times. Of these, 13 have been converted to hundreds and a further 11 into half-centuries.

So, 64.86% of the times Rohit crosses 10 in ODIs in the last two years, he has gone on to make a score of 50 or more. That is a terrific conversion rate for an opener and Pakistan would have been wary of his threat at the top ahead of their World Cup game against India. When the two sides faced off in 2017 in the Champions Trophy final, Mohammad Amir had dismissed Rohit for a three-ball duck.

Rohit's record against left-arm pacers isn't great. He has been dismissed 23 times in ODIs by left-arm fast bowlers. Pakistan had two left-armers which compounded concerns for Rohit and India. But putting all of that to rest, the Mumbaikar slammed his 13th hundred since the Champions Trophy in this format. He has 2894 runs in this period, the second most by any batsman after Virat Kohli, at an average of 67.3 and a strike rate of 96.24.

What stands out is Rohit's six-hitting prowess. The opener has 100 sixes in this time frame, the best by a large distance (Chris Gayle comes next with 80 sixes).

This is Rohit’s second ton in this World Cup and he is edging closer to Aaron Finch who has the most runs in this tournament, albeit in two matches more. The opener averages 159.5 after three games and his 140 is the highest individual score in India - Pakistan World Cup matches.

He became the fourth fastest to 24 ODI hundreds after Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and stitched together the first century opening stand for India in World Cup games against Pakistan.

The opener has been a strong presence in ICC tournaments over the years. While he struggled in the 2013 Champions Trophy with an average of 35.4 and a strike rate in the mid-70s, Rohit hit a ton and made 330 runs at 47.14 in World Cup 2015. In the 2017 Champions Trophy, he scored 304 runs and averaged 76.

Overall, Rohit has scored 1130 runs in 21 innings in World Cup and Champions Trophy matches at an average of 62.77 and strike rate of 88.97. He has registered 4 hundreds in these matches.

Rohit is one of the greatest ODI batsmen in the history of the format with 8329 runs in 203 innings at average of 48.7 and strike rate of 88.28. He has registered 24 ODI hundreds- the third-highest for India after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.