Rohit Sharma in T20Is: Longevity, captaincy highs and the sixes summit

159 matches played by Rohit Sharma is the most for anyone in Men’s T20I cricket, followed by Ireland’s Paul Stirling (145) and George Dockrell (139). Only Harmanpreet Kaur, the current India Women’s T20I captain, has played more T20Is than Rohit (166).

111 wins as a player for Rohit in T20Is, well clear of the next most Shoaib Malik (87).

4231 – Rohit retires as the leading run-scorer in Men’s T20Is, just 43 ahead of teammate Virat Kohli, who too, retired from Coincidentally, Rohit’s aggregate is currently matched by New Zealand’s Suzie Bates (4231 from 154 innings), who leads the run-scoring charts in the Women’s game.

5 hundreds by Rohit is the joint most in T20Is alongside Glenn Maxwell, followed by Suryakumar Yadav’s four. He registered 37 50-plus scores in the format, the second-most after 39 each by Virat Kohli and Babar Azam.

205 sixes by Rohit is the most by anyone in T20Is, much ahead of the next best Martin Guptill (173). He has hit an astounding 612 maximums in international cricket, which too, is a distant record, 59 more than the next best Chris Gayle (553). Rohit also smashed 383 fours in T20Is, the third-most after Babar Azam (440) and Paul Stirling (418).

14 Player of the Match Awards won by Rohit Sharma, is the joint third-most in T20Is, only behind his teammates Kohli (16) and Suryakumar (15). Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan), Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe) and Virandeep Singh (Malaysia) too, have won 14 POTM awards each.

16 years, 284 days– Rohit’s career span in T20Is is the fourth longest, his debut coming against England at Kingsmead Durban during India’s victorious T20 World Cup 2007 campaign.

Longest T20I career-spans (including active players)

190* runs added by Rohit and Rinku Singh for the fifth wicket in the third T20I against Afghanistan in Bengaluru earlier this year remains the highest partnership for fourth wicket or below in the format. Overall, Rohit added 1897 partnership runs with KL Rahul, the third-highest aggregate in the format for any wicket behind Babar Azam – Mohammad Rizwan (3268) and Andrew Balbirne – Paul Stirling (2184). The 1743 runs he added with Shikhar Dhawan is only bettered by Babar and Rizwan’s 2494 among opening pairs.

65 catches by Rohit Sharma in T20Is is exceeded or matched only by David Miller (80), Mohammad Nabi (70), Martin Guptill (68), George Dockrell (65) and Tim Southee (65) among non-wicketkeepers.

Captain marvellous

50 – The 7-run win in the T20 World Cup 2024 final happened to be Rohit’s 50th win as captain in T20Is, him becoming the first to the landmark in the format. Overall, he led in 62 games, a number matched or exceeded only by seven others.

4.17, a staggering win-loss ratio for Rohit as captain in T20Is (50 wins and 12 defeats). Of the 88 players who have led in 20 or more T20Is, only former Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan has a better win-loss ratio than him, just marginally (4.2 – 42 wins and 10 defeats).

3.61– Rohit Sharma’s win-loss ratio as an India captain across formats currently (94 wins and 26 defeats in 123 matches), the most among the 26 players who have led India in at least 12 internationals, followed by Kohli’s 2.28 (137 wins and 60 defeats in 213 matches).

T20 World Cup highs

47 matches played by Rohit is the most for anyone in Men’s T20 World Cup, four more than Shakib Al Hasan’s 43. In fact, these two are the only players to have featured in each of the nine editions. Rohit won 33 matches as a player in T20 World Cups, another record, followed by 27 each by Kohli and David Warner.

1220 runs for Rohit in T20 World Cups, the second-most in the competition’s history after Kohli’s 1292. His tally of 12 50-plus scores too, is also bettered only by Kohli (15).

1000-plus runs in Men’s T20 World Cup

50 sixes by Rohit is the second most in T20 World Cups, behind Chris Gayle’s 63. 15 of Rohit’s 50 sixes in the competition came in 2024 – an Indian record, surpassing Yuvraj Singh’s 12 in 2007. In November last year, Rohit had gone past Gayle’s tally of 49 sixes in the ODI World Cups, and took it to 54 by the end of the competition.

12 matches won by Rohit as a captain out of 14 in the T20 World Cup, the third-most alongside Daren Sammy (12 in 18 matches), only behind MS Dhoni (21 in 33 matches) and Kane Williamson (14 in 21 matches). The only two defeats for India under Rohit in the competition came in the 2022 edition: against South Africa in Perth and in the semi-final against England at the Adelaide Oval.

6 – The whopping win-loss ratio for Rohit as captain is bettered only by Aiden Markram (8 wins and a defeat – all in 2024) among the 59 players who have led in at least four T20 World Cup matches. Michael Clarke led Australia to six wins in the 2010 edition before going down to England in the final.

At 37 years, 60 days, Rohit became the oldest captain to lift a T20 World Cup trophy; Aaron Finch had done that three days before his 35th birthday in 2021. He is the second oldest captain to lift a Men’s World Cup trophy (ODIs and T20Is), after Imran Khan, who led Pakistan to the 1992 CWC final win in Melbourne, aged 39 years and 121 days.

9 players have won two T20 World Cup finals, Rohit Sharma being the latest entrant to the list. Daren Sammy, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Samuel Badree, Johnson Charles and Denesh Ramdin were all a part of the West Indies XI in their victorious 2012 as well as the 2016 finals, while Rohit had scored a brisk 30* off 16 in against Pakistan in Johannesburg.

6 players have led the team in the finals of the Men’s ODI as well as the T20 World Cup till date – MS Dhoni, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Michael Clarke, Kane Williamson and Rohit Sharma.

*All wins mentioned under captaincy records and otherwise include Super Over results