Former India captain Rohit Sharma will be chasing a huge milestone in international cricket when he takes the field on Wednesday, December 3, in the second ODI against South Africa. Rohit, who came into the series in form, scored a well-compiled 57 off 51 at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi and took his tally to 19,959 runs in 503 matches in international cricket. If Rohit scores 41 runs in the second one-day international in Raipur, the 38-year-old will become only the fourth Indian batter to get to the milestone and overall 14th.
Rohit also has the chance to surpass South African great AB de Villiers on the list. De Villiers has 20,014 runs to his name and Rohit will need to score a total of 56 runs on Wednesday to get past the former Proteas batter.
Rohit is also nearing another milestone with regard to his numbers at home. Rohit currently has 4,924 runs at home in ODIs and 8,991 runs in international cricket playing in India. The opening batter will need 76 and 9 runs to get to the respective milestones. Rohit can also surpass Rahul Dravid (9,004) on the second list if he scores 14 runs on Wednesday in Raipur.
It will be interesting to see how the pitch at Raipur plays for the second ODI, given the first one in Ranchi was a good one and the batters from both sides enjoyed playing on that surface. Raipur has hosted just one ODI in history and New Zealand were skittled out for 108 in that game, back in 2023.
Since both Rohit and Virat Kohli, the two senior pros, will be in action on Wednesday again, the spectators and the teams will hope for a good surface for the batters and some help for the bowlers as well.
South Africa will be buoyed by the late fightback from the middle-order and lower-middle order, but they just didn't have enough left in the tank to go all the way. With the captain, Temba Bavuma, set to return, the Proteas would want to level the series on Wednesday in the must-win game.
