3 Indian batsmen who are likely to  complete 1000 runs for the year during the ODI series against West Indies

#3. Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma - The hitman is in six-hitting form

Rohit Sharma is fresh from completing 7000 runs in ODIs. He had a wonderful Asia Cup both as a batsman and as a leader.

In the Asia Cup, Sharma had scores of 23, 52, 83 not out, 111 not out and 48. In the absence of Kohli, both the Indian openers took on the responsibility to score big.

Rohit Sharma had a slow start to his ODI career. However, things took a new shape when he was promoted to the top. Like Sehwag, Sharma’s career graph made a steep ascent ever since he was promoted to the openers slot. Since then, the hitman has scored 3 double hundreds including the record-breaking 264. Rohit Sharma’s records will stand the test of time.

Sharma’s ability to bat through the entire 50 overs even after reaching his hundred is beyond comparison. During the calendar year 2017, he had scored 1293 runs in 21 innings at an average of 72. In the current year 2018, he has scored 641 runs in 14 matches at an average of 58.

Rohit Sharma is a big match impact player. He is a match-winner who is capable of changing the course of a match with his big hitting abilities.

Out of the 3 Indian batsmen, only Rohit has a bigger target to score 359 runs in 5 innings to reach the magic figure of 1000 runs for the calendar year. But being aware of his ability to play big innings, this target is not impossible for him. All he has to concentrate is to survive the first 25 balls of his innings and the runs will start flowing thereafter.

It is a big positive for Team India that the top 3 batsmen are simultaneously in tremendous form in recent times. However, on the flip side, their good form deny the opportunity for the middle-order batsmen to spend some time at the wicket. As a result, when there is a rare failure from the top order, the middle-order is exposed.

Apart from the above 3 top order batsmen, the next highest scorer for India in 2018 is M.S. Dhoni with 225 runs from 10 innings at an average of 28. Ambati Rayadu has scored 175 runs in 6 innings at a healthy average of 44. Dinesh Karthik has scored 167 runs in 2018 in 7 innings at a decent average of 42. But none of these players have played any match-winning innings.

Hardik Pandya has managed to score just 68 runs in 6 innings. Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey haven’t got enough opportunity in 2018 to prove themselves, though Jadhav will be remembered for his heroics in the Asia Cup final standing on one leg.

One man’s profit is another man’s loss. The way things stand, along with the West Indies team, the India middle-order batsmen might be hoping for the top order to fail. But going by the current form of the top order, it is highly unlikely to happen.

If Virat, Dhawan and Rohit manage to break their respective 1000 mark barrier this year, this would be the first time in the history of one-day cricket that 3 players from the same team happen to do that. 3000 runs in a year is a lot of runs even for a team score.