Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are two of the best batsmen to have played international cricket for India. Both are widely respected within the cricket fraternity, having achieved several monumental feats and inspiring youngsters with the way they conduct themselves on and off the field.
Rohit started his international career in June 2007. Later that year, he was part of the Indian squad that won the first T20 World Cup in South Africa. The marquee event saw Rohit play some crucial innings, including the unbeaten half-century against South Africa, which earned him the Player of the Match award.
Ahead of the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rohit was brought in by the Deccan Chargers for $750,000 per year. He played a key role for the franchise during the title challenge in 2009. The Mumbai cricketers also scored a hat-trick in IPL 2009 against Mumbai Indians. In the same season, he helped Deccan beat Mumbai Indians, hitting two sixes and two fours in the last over when 22 runs were needed.
After spending three seasons with Deccan Chargers, Rohit moved to the Mumbai Indians (MI) for $2 million (approximately INR 9 crore) ahead of IPL 2011. The Nagpur native went on to captain MI and win five IPL titles. He took charge midway through IPL 2013 and helped Mumbai lift the coveted trophy. Only MS Dhoni has won five IPL titles as captain, but Rohit did that in fewer seasons.
Despite being a great captain, Rohit has not been able to score as many runs as he would have liked in the competition. Only once, in 2013, has he amassed more than 500 runs in a season.
Talking about Virat Kohli, the talismanic batsman holds the most batting records in the IPL. He led India to the U-19 World Cup title in 2008. The right-handed batsman was subsequently picked by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for a reported fee of $50,000 in the U-19 draft. Later that year he made his international debut.
Kohli failed to take off as a batsman in the IPL and had three uneventful seasons. However, in IPL 2011, he performed excellently, scoring 557 runs in 16 matches at an average of 46.41. Now Kohli is the only Indian batsman to have won the Orange Cap more than once. Kohli has the most runs, most fifties and most centuries in IPL history. He has also hit the most number of fours and the third number of sixes in the tournament.
The 36-year-old is the first player to play for the same franchise for 18 seasons. He managed RCB from 2013 to 2021. During his tenure, RCB reached the finals multiple times in 2016 and the play-offs. No batsman has managed to surpass Kohli’s tally of 973 runs in a given season of the IPL. He scored this mountain of points in 2016.
Based on the points mentioned above, it can be said that Rohit is the more experienced captain while Kohli has done better as a batsman. However, the former became a star in the IPL earlier, but it must be said that he was already a T20 World Cup champion when he played his first season in the cash-rich league.
Get every cricket update! Follow us:
#Rohit #Sharma #Virat #Kohli #started #earlier #star #IPL #CricTracker