How Rohit Sharma aced 2019: Numbers reveal stunning impact of right-hander

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It has been a sensational year for Rohit Sharma, he slammed five centuries in the World Cup and then was brilliant as an opener in Test cricket. Not only was he prolific as a batsman, he was an absolute match-winner for India across all formats. The right-hander scored 1921 runs in victorious matches – it is the fourth-highest in this decade for all batsmen who have scored a minimum of 1500 runs in wins in a single calendar year. And, well, Rohit finds his name thrice in the top 5 list.

It was a year he would never forget – he scored 556 runs in 6 innings at a strike rate of 75.95 including three hundreds in his debut year as Test opener. His batting average for any batsman (minimum 500 runs) in 2019 and was followed by Australian batsman Steve Smith (74.23).

With a winning per cent 78.67%, Rohit Sharma had the highest percentage of runs in winning matches.

Also, his average in India of 88.33 is the second-highest (after the legend Don Bradman’s 98.22 in Australia) for any batsman at home in the history of Test cricket for a minimum of 1000 Test runs.

“I should be grateful of the year I’ve had. A World Cup victory there would’ve been nice. But as a team, we played some good cricket throughout the year whether in red-ball cricket or white ball cricket. The team kept together very well and every individual stepped up and put their hand up and got the team through. Personally, yes, I’ve enjoyed batting but there’s no way I’m going to stop here. An exciting year coming forward as well so I quite look forward to that as well,” Rohit said at the end of India’s season this year.

“I understand my batting really well and I want to play within my limits, whatever limitations I’ve got. Knowing the gameplan that you want to execute on the field is very very important and more often than not I went out there trying to do that. Even in the red-ball format, playing against South Africa, I knew it was going to be challenging. Although in India, we never saw the ball swing, it swung quite a bit in that series and it was a big challenge facing the new ball. We know the challenge will be bigger when we start travelling and we want to win games there. It’s more important than individual performances because we want to make sure we stay on top of the table,” he further added.