Indian vice-captain Rohit Sharma became the third-fastest batsman to reach 9000 runs in ODI cricket. Rohit achieved the feat during the third ODI between India and Australia in Bengaluru. The 32-year-old reached the feat in his 217th innings.
Indian captain Virat Kohli is currently the fastest to score 9000 runs in the fifty-over format. He reached the figure in his 194th innings. South Africa's AB de Villiers follows the Indian captain at second place, reaching the 9000th run in his 205th innings.
Rohit Sharma has now gone past legendary former Indian batsmen Sourav Ganguly (228 innings) and Sachin Tendulkar (235 innings) for the feat. Among Indians, MS Dhoni features at fifth (244 innings), while Rahul Dravid follows the former Indian captain (259 innings).
Rohit Sharma won the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year award for the year 2019 earlier this week. The Indian opener produced a stellar display in the fifty-over format with the bat, slamming seven centuries throughout the year. Five of his centuries came at the 2019 World Cup, where he ended as the highest run-scorer.
In the World Cup, he also became the first batsman in World Cup history to score five centuries in a single edition.
Rohit looked forward to carrying his form in the coming year, after an aggregate of 1409 runs from 28 matches with seven hundreds in the ODI format.
"It is great to be recognised in this fashion. We are very happy with the way we performed as a team in 2019. We could have done better but we have a lot of positives and a lot to look forward to in 2020," Rohit had said after receiving the award.
India are taking on Australia in the three-match ODI series, which is the side's last home series before it departs for New Zealand later this month. Australia registered a dominant 10-wicket victory in the first ODI in Mumbai, while India came back strongly in the second game, winning by 36 runs.
Australia were restricted to 286/9 in the third ODI.
