"I Can't Believe It": Ex-England Captain's Epic Reaction On Rohit Sharma World No. 1 ODI Batter Late In Career

Former India skipper Rohit Sharma on Wednesday claimed the top spot in the ICC Men's ODI batter rankings for the first time in his distinguished career. The 38-year-old Rohit created history as he rose two spots on the back of his superb unbeaten century (121 not out) in the third and final ODI between India and Australia in Sydney, where he led his side to an emphatic nine-wicket triumph. Rohit has so far played 276 ODIs, scoring 11,370 runs at an average of 49.22. Former England captain Nasser Hussain was astonished that Rohit reached the No. 1 ranking so late in his career.

"I can't believe it, to be honest. I heard he [Rohit Sharma] went to number one, and my first question was-when has he been at number one before? And someone said it's the first time. I mean, he's been around forever; he's got three double hundreds in ODI cricket. There must have been some good white-ball players, one-day players in the last 15 years. Fabulous white-ball cricketer, fabulous player, and well done to him. He deserves to be number one in the world," Hussain told ICC.

Even Dinesh Karthik was surprised, saying Rohit's performance in the 2019 World Cup should have earned him the No. 1 ranking. In the 2019 World Cup, Rohit slammed five centuries and one half-century to end with a tally of 648 runs in nine matches.

"I am surprised that in the 2019 World Cup he wasn't No. 1 somewhere during the tournament. Just the way he batted-it was poetry in motion. It was fascinating to watch how much effort he put in during the lead-up to the series. Prior to this series, over the last three to four years, when the ball was seaming, his only modus operandi was hit out or get out. Here, he actually went back to being a good old-fashioned opener, where he left the ball and played defensively. He almost showed what it takes to do well in such tough conditions as an opener," Karthik said.

"Now, that side of Rohit Sharma we haven't seen because the belligerent side is what we've become so accustomed to. That's an even harder skill, but this is a hard skill in a different way. It takes a lot of mental courage to leave a ball, get no success out of it because it's a dot ball, yet know that if I bat through this and back my technique, I'll get runs."

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