One of the world's best batters and the most successful captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rohit Gurunath Sharma is a global cricketing star. Entering the biggest stage of Cricket as a prodigious talent, Rohit became a significant name in the Indian side. Such is Rohit Sharma’s talent, combined with consistency.

Famously known as the 'Hitman', Rohit Sharma is a record-breaker and one of the finest leaders in world cricket.

Calm when needed and fiery on command, Rohit has led India to the final of the Cricket World Cup 2023 and WTC 2023. Notably, under his astute leadership, India were crowned champions twice in consecutive years after winning the 2024  T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy in 2025, with India winning the titles unbeaten in both the tournaments.

Rohit Sharma’s Biography and Early Career

Rohit Sharma was born on 30th April, 1987, into a Marathi-Telugu family in Nagpur, Maharashtra. His mother, Purnima Sharma, belonged to Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and his father, Gurunath Sharma, was from Maharashtra.

His father worked as a caretaker of a transport firm's storehouse, yielding a low income, and thus lived in a single-room house. The batter lived with his grandparents for the same reason.

Belonging to a low-income household, Rohit joined his first cricket camp in 1999 with his uncle’s money. Dinesh Lad, his childhood coach, recognised his talent and helped him secure a scholarship to attend a school with better cricket facilities.

Interestingly, the Ro‘HIT’man started off his career as an off-spinner who could bat a little. Nonetheless, thanks to Lad’s ability to scan a prodigious talent, Rohit Sharma excelled as an opener.

Rohit Sharma’s Domestic Career

In March 2005, he made his List A debut for the West Zone in the Deodhar Trophy at Gwalior, scoring an unbeaten 31 for West Zone against Central Zone in the Deodhar Trophy. Notably, it was Sharma's unbeaten innings of 142 in 123 balls against North Zone at the Maharanna Bhupal College Ground in Udaipur in the same tournament that brought him into the limelight.

Rohit’s prolific run-scoring earned him a place in the India A squad, and he made his first-class debut for India A against New Zealand A at Darwin, Australia, in a multilateral series later that same year, scoring 57 and 22 in the match.

He subsequently made his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai, one of the leading (and hard to break into) teams in the Indian domestic circuit, in the 2006–07 season, and impressed with a double hundred against Gujarat, complemented by a half-century in a winning cause in the final that year. Sharma has represented Mumbai throughout his first-class career.

In 2007, courtesy of consistent domestic carnage, Sharma cracked into the international level, thus fading from the domestic circuit for a hiatus.

It is important to note that after the BCCI made domestic participation compulsory for contracted players unless they are injured or on national duty, Rohit Sharma returned to the Ranji Trophy in January 2025.

Moreover, in his maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy match after a long wait, Sharma smashed an emphatic 155 without breaking a sweat, wasting little time in reminding the BCCI and selectors of their enduring ODI pedigree.

Rohit Sharma’s Test Career (2013-2025)

Rohit Sharma’s Test debut came in November 2013, during Sachin Tendulkar's farewell series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata against the West Indies. He scored an impressive 177, the second-highest individual score on debut by an Indian. Moreover, he followed it up with 111* in the second Test at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Despite a great start to his Test career, Sharma saw a significant decline in form, batting in the middle order. Apart from the two hundreds in his first two outings for India, he only managed another ton and 10 fifties during a long period, from his debut in 2013 till the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne in 2018.

Already a modern great in white-ball cricket, Rohit Sharma failed to impress in the red-ball format. As a last resort to save his place in the squad, he was promoted to open in Test Cricket. 

Sharma opened in Test cricket for the first time on October 2, 2019, against South Africa in Visakhapatnam. In his debut as an opener, he made an immediate impact by scoring twin centuries (176 and 127), becoming the first player to do so in their first Test opening, thus turning a new page for himself in the longest format. 

By 2020, Rohit Sharma replaced Cheteshwar Pujara as the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team. The added responsibility helped Sharma bring out the best in himself, especially during the home series against England in 2021. 

Later, succeeding Virat Kohli, he was appointed as the captain of India's Test team in February 2022 ahead of a two-match series against Sri Lanka. 

Under his leadership, the Men in White reached their consecutive World Test Championship final in 2021-23. Nonetheless, the 2024–25 season marked another dip in Rohit’s Test career. His captaincy also came under criticism following the 0–3 home series defeat to New Zealand, India's first Test series loss at home in 12 years, and the 1–3 away loss to Australia that followed. 

It is important to note that the 37-year-old endured a nightmare during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, managing only 31 runs across 5 innings in the first 4 games. Consequently, considering his poor form, the then Test captain, Rohit Sharma, voluntarily dropped himself from the final Test in Sydney, keeping the “team first”. 

In his eight final Tests, he managed to score just one half-century and averaged 10.93. Eventually, drawing curtains to his Test career on 7 May 2025, ahead of India's England tour. The decision was aimed at giving the team management and selectors a chance to rebuild the squad around newer faces.

Rohit Sharma concluded his Test career, having played 61 Tests and scored 4,301 runs at 40.57. In the 24 Tests he captained, India won 12, lost nine, and drew 3.

Rohit Sharma’s ODI Career

Rohit Sharma made his ODI debut on 23rd June 2007, against Ireland in Belfast. Batting down the order, Sharma scored his maiden ODI half-century (52) against Pakistan at Jaipur on 18 November 2007.

After that, however, his ODI performances declined, and Rohit Sharma lost his place to contemporary great Virat Kohli.

Moreover, good form in domestic cricket led to a national team recall, with Rohit scoring his maiden ODI century against Zimbabwe in 2010. Rohit got a chance to tour the West Indies, with several of the mainstays rested due to a gruelling few months after the 2011 World Cup final. Rohit did well in that series by bagging the 'Man of the Series' award, but he couldn't continue the impressive performances for long.

Virender Sehwag and Ajinkya Rahane's poor performances against Pakistan and England later provided him with a lifeline, as the ex-Indian team skipper MS Dhoni gave him an opportunity to open in the fourth ODI against England. Rohit scored 83 off 93 balls, and there has been no turning back since then.

In what's today termed one of the masterstrokes of MS Dhoni, the then-Indian captain sent Rohit up the order to open for India, who forged a fantastic opening combo with Shikhar Dhawan to help India lift the 2013 Champions Trophy. A few months later, Rohit plundered 491 runs in six innings in what was a high-scoring ODI series against Australia. More importantly, the last match of that series saw him score the first double-hundred in ODI cricket. Later, he went on to smash two more double-hundreds, both against Sri Lanka.

However, 2019 was probably Rohit's best year, as he smashed five hundreds in the ODI World Cup in England. Such form meant that he bagged both the 'ICC ODI Player of the Year' award and also the prestigious 'Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna' award in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Moreover, in November 2020, Sharma was nominated for the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade award.

In 2021, Sharma was finally recognised for his leadership and awarded the ODI captaincy, replacing Virat. July witnessed Sharma become the first Indian captain to lead their team to both T20I and ODI series wins in England. He became the 3rd Indian captain to win an ODI series in England, and the first since 2014.

Under his leadership, India reached consecutive ICC tournament finals in the ODI format, winning the Men’s Champions Trophy in 2025 after 13 long years.

Rohit Sharma’s T20I Career (2007-2024)

The Nagpur-born batter Rohit Sharma was part of the Indian squad that won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. In terms of his personal performances, Rohit made a solid impact in the 'Super 8' match against South Africa.

On 2 October 2015, during the South African tour of India, Sharma scored 106 in the first T20I at HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala. With that, he became the second Indian cricketer to have scored centuries in all three formats of international cricket. In 2017, Sharma scored the joint-fastest T20I ton in just 35 balls against Sri Lanka, equalling David Miller.

During the opening match of the series against Bangladesh in 2019, Sharma became the most-capped cricketer for India in T20Is, playing in his 99th match, followed by the first Indian cricketer to play 100 T20Is.

In 2021, Rohit was awarded the captaincy of the Indian team in all formats after Virat Kohli stepped down after India's disastrous campaign in the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE.

In the T20 World Cup 2024, Rohit Sharma led the Indian side to tournament victory after 17 years of holdup. With the historic win on June 29, 2024, Sharma hung with boots in the shortest format of the game.

Rohit finished his T20I career as the leading run-scorer. He accumulated 4231 runs from 159 matches. He has the joint-most hundreds (5) in the format. Rohit also hit 32 half-centuries, and his highest score came against Afghanistan, 121 not out.

Rohit Sharma’s IPL Career

Rohit Sharma’s IPL career needs no introduction! Batter with the second most runs in the history of the league, six IPL titles, one with Deccan Chargers in 2009. On top of that, with five trophies as captain of the Mumbai Indians (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020), he is the joint-most successful captain in the league.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that Rohit and the Mumbai Indians' best days started when he led the side to a maiden IPL title in 2013. Fast forward to 2021, and Mumbai is the most successful IPL side with five Championships to its name.

However, with time not being on his side, he was sacked as the MI captain ahead of IPL 2024. Rohit had a poor campaign in the same edition. He managed 417 runs in 14 matches, including a century and a half-century in the tournament.

Amid these challenges, on October 31, 2024, MI retained Rohit Sharma for IPL 2025 for INR 16.30 crore, a clear vote of confidence in his abilities despite the ups and downs of the season. This retention underscored his enduring reputation as the linchpin of Mumbai’s batting and leadership.

Rohit Sharma’s Captaincy Career (2022-2025)

Rohit Sharma’s captaincy can be described in three words: ‘Brief but impactful’. Rohit has led India in just over 140 matches and has a win percentage of over 70.

Sharma’s legacy as a captain will be enviable; he is second only to MS Dhoni in winning ICC trophies in both ODI and T20I. Notably, these came after the heartbreak in the 2023 ODI World Cup final in Ahmedabad.

Now, let’s take a look at Rohit Sharma’s captaincy stats. He has played 142 matches as the Indian captain. He has registered 103 victories and 33 losses. He also led the team in three draws and two no results.

(As of February 2026)