Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – The Hitman and Superman duo of ODIs with this record

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are nicknamed ‘Hitman’ and ‘Superman’ respectively. Rohit due to his big-hitting abilities and Kohli because of his mind-boggling consistency. The dup have shattered plenty of individual records in ODIs. Even as a duo, Rohit and Kohli have notched up plenty of records in their playing career. In the third ODI against New Zealand at The Bay Oval, Rohit and Kohli created yet another record as they strung a century partnership to put India on course for a famous series win in New Zealand. Rohit and Kohli hit their 39^th and 49^th fifties respectively and shared a partnership of 113 to deflate New Zealand.

However, the 113-run stand for the second wicket was their 16^th in ODIs, making them the second-most prolific Indian pair and joint-third in the overall list. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have stitched 26 ODI century partnerships while Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan have hit 20 century partnerships in this format. Kohli and Rohit are level with Australia’s explosive opening duo of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist as New Zealand continued to struggle.

In 176 ODIs in which the dup have batted together, Ganguly and Tendulkar’s highest stand were 258 which they achieved against Kenya in Paarl in 2001 during the tri-series which also involved South Africa. They also have two additional double century stands, which was 252 against Sri Lanka at the Premadasa stadium in 1998 while they hit 244 against Namibia in the 2003 World Cup clash in Pietermaritzburg.

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The Sri Lankan duo of Dilshan and Sangakkara has also set the world stage alight with their partnerships. During the 2015 World Cup match against Bangladesh, the dup stitched 210 for the second wicket in Melbourne which was their highest. The only other time they went past 200 was against India during the Hobart ODI of 2012. Gilchrist and Hayden do not have any double century stands but their highest of 172 came in the 2007 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Bridgetown, Barbados. Gilchrist slammed 149 and Australia became the four-time world champions.

Kohli and Rohit have the second-best average in the entire list for duos who have batted together for over 50 ODIs. Their average of 65.35 is only trumped by Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, who have an average of 72.34. Their highest stand is 246 which they achieved against West Indies in the Guwahati ODI of 2018. They have five double-century stands and they are the third batting duo to have more century than fifty partnerships behind Amla-de Villiers and Michael Clarke-Ricky Ponting of Australia.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma stitched their 16th century stand.
• Kohli and Rohit both hit fifties in Bay Oval.
• Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have the most with 26 century stands.