Rohit Sharma set to play 200th IPL match for Mumbai Indians; a look at his career in franchise cricket

HYDERABAD: Mumbai Indians (MI) star batter and former Indian Premier League (IPL) skipper Rohit Sharma will be playing his 200th match in the league for his franchise on Wednesday, when he takes on the field against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

SRH and MI will take on each other in their IPL 2024 clash in Hyderabad. Both teams started with narrow losses of four runs and six runs to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Gujarat Titans (GT), respectively, in their campaign openers.

Rohit has been an absolute legend for the Mumbai Indians. Since joining the franchise as a bright up-and-coming talent back in 2011, Rohit has played 199 IPL matches in Blue and Gold clothing, scoring 5,084 runs at an average of 29.39 and a strike rate of 129.86. He has scored a century and 34 fifties in 195 innings for MI, with the best score of 109*.

After taking over the captaincy of the franchise from Ricky Ponting in 2013, Rohit took MI to their golden period, winning the trophy five times in 10 years (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020) and reaching playoffs twice. Hardik Pandya replaced him as the captain last year after making a move to the franchise that made him a star following two great years with the Gujarat Titans (GT), including the title-winning debut season in 2022.

Rohit has also won two Champions League T20 titles with MI in 2011 and 2013, the latter as a captain. The ‘Hitman’ is MI’s all-time highest run-getter, scoring 5,357 runs in 208 matches and 204 innings at an average of 29.59 and a strike rate of almost 130, with a century and 35 fifties in 204 innings.

As a youngster, Rohit also represented the now-defunct Deccan Chargers, a former Hyderabad franchise from 2008-2010. He played 45 matches for the team, scoring 1,170 runs at an average of 30.79 and a strike rate of over 131, with eight fifties in 44 innings. His best score was 76*. He won the IPL 2009 season with this franchise, making him a six-time IPL champion.

The veteran batter is the fourth-highest run-getter in IPL history, scoring 6,254 runs in 244 matches at an average of 29.63 and a strike rate of 130.15. He scored a century and 42 fifties in 239 innings, with the best score of 109*.

As someone who has led MI for so long, Rohit is an institution in himself, with him and MI shaping the career trajectories of many future Indian stars like Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, Ambati Rayadu, etc.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan, Travis Head, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Jaydev Unadkat, Anmolpreet Singh, Upendra Yadav, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Akash Maharaj Singh, Nitish Reddy

Mumbai Indians Squad: Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Hardik Pandya(c), Shams Mulani, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Luke Wood, Naman Dhir, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Shreyas Gopal, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Nehal Wadhera, Kumar Kartikeya, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Akash Madhwal, Nuwan Thushara, Kwena Maphaka. (ANI)

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