Can Rohit Sharma go past Sachin Tendulkar's tally of ODI hundreds?

Sachin Tendulkar is considered the gold standard as far as batting records are considered. Hailed as the ‘God of cricket’ by his vast legion of fans around the world, Tendulkar holds just about every single batting record in the ODI format of the game, including that for the most runs (18426), most hundreds (49) and most fifties (96).

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While some of Tendulkar’s gargantuan records might never be broken, many of the master’s numbers are likely to be overhauled in the near future - especially by current Indian skipper Virat Kohli. It is almost a given that Kohli will go past Tendulkar’s tally of ODI hundreds as he needs just seven more to cross the mark. That might well happen as early as 2021.

Virat Kohli

But does Rohit Sharma have a chance of overtaking Tendulkar's 49 ODI centuries too? An in-depth look at the numbers is in order here.

The below table gives the summary of Tendulkar’s ODI record. What we should be interested in here is the innings taken per century by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar's record in ODI's

From the above table, we can see that Tendulkar took as many as 9.22 innings per hundred. Of course, Tendulkar has as many as 18 90s in ODI cricket, and if he had converted them into three figure scores, his century tally would have been unassailable. But then, that is the nature of sport, and the final number we have is 9.22.

On the other hand, let us look at Rohit’s ODI record.

Rohit Sharma's record in ODI's

Rohit has scored 27 hundreds in ODI cricket, and has taken 7.81 innings per hundred. Now, if we just take the absolute numbers and do the simple math, Rohit would need to play 390 innings to go past Tendulkar’s tally.

While this might seem unlikely, a deeper analysis of Rohit’s numbers reveals a totally different story.

To go further, let us analyse Rohit’s record before and after the year 2013. This is because it was only from 2013 that Rohit started opening the batting for India in ODIs.

These numbers reveal a startling story.

Before 2013

Rohit's record before he became an opener

Since 2013

Rohit Sharma's record after becoming an opener

A simple analysis of Rohit’s career by splitting it into two parts reveals that since he has started opening the batting for India, the innings per century taken by him has come down to just 5.28 as compared to his overall rate of 7.81 innings per hundred.

Now, considering that Rohit will continue to open the batting for India in the years to come, let us calculate the number of innings Rohit would require to overhaul Tendulkar’s tally if he takes 5.28 innings per hundred.

Rohit needs 23 more hundreds to go past Tendulkar. That would mean he needs another 121 innings to score his 50th century in ODI cricket. Simple math tells us that Rohit can score his 50th ODI century by the time he plays his 332nd innings in ODI cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar

Rohit has played 132 innings in the last six years, and if India play their ODI matches at the same rate, Rohit can go past Tendulkar’s tally of ODI hundreds in another six years - by the time he is 37 years old.

Of course, a lot can happen in the next six years; many batsmen fail to maintain their scoring standards once they get into their mid-30s. But on the off-chance that Rohit continues his blistering run in limited overs cricket, it very much possible for him to go past Tendulkar’s century tally by the time he retires.

Indian greats have shown the tendency to carry on well into their 30s. Tendulkar retired at 40, Rahul Dravid at 39 and MS Dhoni is still around at 38 years of age. All Rohit needs to do is look at these greats for inspiration and emulate their playing patterns.

If he does manage to do that, he might well go on to score 50 hundreds in ODI cricket and skip past the ‘Little Master’.