India captain Rohit Sharma shattered many batting records on Wednesday (October 11) when he took the Afghanistan bowlers to the cleaners in Match 10 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi. Rohit smashed 131 off just 84 balls, which included 16 fours and 5 sixes. Coming at a strike rate of 155.95, Rohit recorded his seventh century of the ODI World Cup. His previous 6 had come in Australia and England respectively. This was his first World Cup hundred on the home soil.

Rohit Sharma’s Sixes: Australia To West Indies, Breakdown Of India Skipper’s Maximums

In the process, Rohit became the batter with most international sixes, going past the great Chris Gayle. This was also the fastest hundred by an Indian while Rohit also became the join-fastest to 1,000 runs in World Cup history. Rohit has also slammed 31 ODI tons now after the knock vs Afghanistam going past Ricky Ponting’s tally of 30. Now, the top 3 batters with most hundreds in the format are only Indians. They Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit.

This is Rohit’s third World Cup. But it could have been his fourth, had MS Dhoni decided not to drop him to accommodate leggie Piyush Chawla. As per reports, the then head coach Gary Kirsten wanted Rohit in the squad back in 2011 but Dhoni preferred Chawla as he wanted to strengthen the bowling attack. In the end, Dhoni’s wish was fulfilled. 

In 2011, Rohit had taken to X (then Twitter) to document his feelings. He had tweeted, “Really really disappointed of not being the part of the WC squad..I need to move on from here..but honestly it was a big setback..any views.”

From this in 2011, to becoming the highest ever century maker in World Cup History , scoring 7 hundreds in just 2 World Cups plus 2 matches, just proves again that “Never ever give up” and that Champions find a way to live their dream. #RohitSharma #INDvsAFG pic.twitter.com/o6gJxrhvk2
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) October 11, 2023

Former India international VVS Laxman, who is the current head of National Cricket Academy (NCA), shared the screenshot of this Rohit tweet after the ‘Hitman’ smashed his seventh World Cup hundred and wrote, “From this in 2011, to becoming the highest ever century maker in World Cup History , scoring 7 hundreds in just 2 World Cups plus 2 matches, just proves again that “Never ever give up” and that Champions find a way to live their dream.”

Rohit made his World Cup debut in 2015. He had slammed his first hundred in that edition. But in 2019, his second World Cup, Rohit hit 5 tons, to equalise Sachin Tendulkar’s record. In just the second match of the 2023 World Cup, Rohit has managed to go past the great man in just 19 innings. 

Laxman shared the old tweet with an intention to pass on message to players who missed out selection this year that one should never stop believing in our skills and keep working hard.