Rohit breaks Jayasuriya’s record, makes most runs in year as opener

PTI, Dec 23, 2019, 9:57 AM IST

Cuttack: India’s Rohit Sharma on Sunday broke Sanath Jayasuriya’s 22-year-old record for most runs in a calendar year by an opener across formats.

Coming into the third and final ODI against the West Indies here, Rohit was only nine short of eclipsing the former Sri Lankan swashbuckler, who tallied 2387 runs in 1997.

When the Mumbaikar got out for a run-a-ball 63 at the Barabati Stadium, Rohit aggregated 2442 runs. The batsman scored 10 hundreds across formats and as many half centuries in the year, averaging 53.08 in 47 innings.

Rohit went past the former Sri Lanka captain’s record when he took a single off a Sheldon Cottrell delivery.

Among the other notable openers, who had good seasons are Virender Sehwag (2355 runs) in 2008 and Matthew Hayden (2349 runs) in 2003.

He is also at the top spot in the calendar run-scoring charts in ODIs with 1490.