Rohit Sharma vs Shikhar Dhawan - comparing their stats after 167 ODIs

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, who are extremely similar to each other in their respective styles of batting, have both served India for a long time. While Dhawan hung his boots up from all forms of cricket in 2024, Rohit continues to ply his trade as the country's captain in Tests and ODIs. He, too, retired from T20Is after guiding the Men in Blue to the 2024 T20 World Cup title.

Both these batters have been known for their swashbuckling styles of batting against the new ball. They have always shown the courage to play expansive shots even when the ball is new and moving around in the air.

While this style of batting was first introduced in white-ball cricket as an opener in India by the iconic Virender Sehwag, Dhawan and Rohit have lived up to being his true successors. The latter, who was not an opener by trade but made into one to save his flagging career by MS Dhoni in 2013, has hardly looked out of place ever since.

Dhawan, who retired after playing 34 Tests, 167 ODIs, and 68 T20Is, was one of the best white-ball cricketers to have donned the blue jersey for India. The southpaw was easy on the eye and technically sound but wreaked havoc upon bowlers whenever they missed either their line or length.

Although he was primarily known for his exploits in white-ball cricket, Shikhar Dhawan awed the cricket world with a stellar 187 on his Test debut against Australia in Mohali in 2013 as well. Nonetheless, it is against the white-ball format that he earned most of the plaudits that the world showered upon him after his retirement.

In ODIs especially, Dhawan was one of the best, if not the best openers in the world during his prime. In 167 matches, he amassed 6,793 runs at an average of 44.13. To average over 40 against the new ball in international cricket is no joke, and that Dhawan scored his runs at a strike rate of 91.35 is also telling of his abilities.

The Delhi-born cricketer bagged 17 centuries and 39 fifties in his ODI career, with a highest of 143, which came against his old foes Australia in Mohali in 2019. It is the same venue where he had tormented them with his ton on Test debut six years earlier. There were few batters other than Shikhar Dhawan that one could have watched more fondly when on song.

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Rohit Sharma's batting is also easy on the eye

Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan during the 4th cricket match of Asia Cup 2018 between India and Hong Kong at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 09-18-2018 (Photo by Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Rohit Sharma, too, is as easy on the eye as Dhawan was and is widely appreciated across the world for his languid manner. The 37-year-old is renowned for being a good player of the short ball and can be seen routinely dispatching such misgivings from errant bowlers out of the park.

His driving is among the best in the world and is at his best on surfaces that do not assist too much movement off the pitch. Since he likes to bat with a flourish, with his bat coming down at an angle and feet slightly away from where the ball has pitched, Rohit has made white-ball cricket his own.

In one-day cricket, Rohit Sharma is nearly unparalleled at the top of the order, and his numbers prove it: in 267 matches, he has amassed 10,987 runs at an average of 49.26 already, which is almost godlike. In Cuttack on Sunday, February 9, he peeled off his 32nd ODI ton; he has 57 half-centuries besides.

That he has scored three double-centuries in this format of the game only goes to prove Rohit's greatness - no other batter has scored even two so far. When he gets going against the new ball, few batters in the world can match him in the destruction he can cause with his mere placement and timing.

By the time he had played his 167th ODI, against Australia in Bengaluru in 2017, Rohit had piled up 5,908 runs at an average of 43.44. This is just a tad less than what Dhawan achieved in the 167 matches that he played and goes to show that his numbers got better as his career progressed.

While it can be argued that Rohit's numbers in ODIs started getting better only after he began opening regularly in January 2013, Dhawan batted all his career at the top of the order. Rohit had scored 14 centuries by the time he had played the same number of matches as Dhawan.

While the comparison between two cricketers can never be done to satisfaction, Shikhar Dhawan slightly wins over Rohit Sharma when it comes to his batting numbers.