Indian cricket legend Rohit Sharma marked a major milestone on June 23, as he completed 18 years in international cricket. The senior batter took to Instagram to share an emotional story featuring a photo of his helmet bearing the Indian flag and the BCCI logo. He captioned it “Forever Grateful” along with the date “23/06/07”, the day he made his international debut.
Rohit began his journey as a 19-year-old in an ODI against Ireland in Belfast under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. While he did not get the opportunity to bat in that match, India secured a comfortable nine-wicket win. Just three days later, he got his first chance to bat in a match against South Africa, scoring eight runs. Back then, Rohit was seen as a middle-order batter who could also bowl part-time off-spin.
Over the years, Rohit has grown into one of the greatest batters and a successful leader. His early years from 2007 to 2012 were inconsistent as he played in the middle-order. However, his career took a turn in 2013 when MS Dhoni promoted him to open the innings in ODIs. From then on, he formed a formidable opening partnership with Shikhar Dhawan, with the duo scoring over 5000 runs together.
Rohit has since become one of the most dominant players in ODI history. He has scored over 11,000 runs in the format, including a record-breaking 264, the highest individual score in ODIs. He remains the only batter to score three double centuries in the format and has 32 hundreds and 58 fifties to his name.
After becoming full-time captain in 2022, Rohit led India to multiple major finals. In 2023, he guided the team to an Asia Cup victory and also to the finals of the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship. While both finals ended in losses to Australia, Rohit bounced back in 2024 by leading India to a T20 World Cup title in the Caribbean.
Most recently, he led India to another ICC title in 2025, winning the Champions Trophy in Dubai. Having retired from T20Is after the 2024 World Cup and stepping away from Test cricket before the England series, Rohit is now focused solely on ODIs. With the 2027 World Cup in sight, the Indian captain is determined to finish his career on a high.