Indian captain Rohit Sharma led the batting for the visitors at Colombo with a half-century at the top of the order, after hosts Sri Lanka posted a total of 240 runs in the first innings.
Indian openers Rohit and Shubman Gill put up a 97-run stand for the first wicket, with the Indian skipper taking the role of an aggressor, as he scored 64 runs off 44 balls, which included five fours and four sixes.
MORE: How many more sixes does Rohit Sharma need to top the six-hitting charts in ODIs?
With this inning, he has now posted 121 fifty-plus scores as an opener in international cricket. In this article, The Sporting News provides you a list of the top five Indian batsmen with most 50-plus scores as an opener.
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Which Indian opener has the most fifty-plus scores in international cricket?
Four Indian openers have posted over hundred 50+ plus scores in international cricket, namely Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag.
In the first ODI of the 3-match series against Sri Lanka, Rohit had equaled Sachin's record of most fifty-plus scores in internationals, with a 58-run inning, and in the second ODI, where he scored 64 runs, he surpassed the legendary Indian batter's record.
| Batter | 50+ scores |
|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma | 121 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 120 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 101 |
| Virender Sehwag | 101 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 79 |
Rohit had opened the batting for India for the first time during the ICC T20 World Cup in 2009, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, where he scored 36 runs and an unbeaten 52 in his first two matches, against Bangladesh and Ireland, respectively.
Recently, former Indian head coach and commentator Ravi Shastri had praised the Indian captain as one of the best white-ball batters ever, calling him "one of the all-time greats".
MORE: Ravi Shastri Calls Rohit Sharma an "All-Time Great", compares him to the great MS Dhoni
What is Rohit Sharma's record in international cricket as an opener?
As an opener, Rohit Sharma has scored over 150000 runs for India in the three formats of the game. Here is a breakdown of his numbers in Tests, ODIs and T20Is:
| Format | Innings | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 50s | 100s | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 54 | 2552 | 50.03 | 7 | 9 | 212 | |
| ODIs | 175 | 8801 | 55.70 | 95.81 | 44 | 29 | 264 |
| T20Is | 124 | 3750 | 32.60 | 143.02 | 27 | 5 | 121* |
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