Rohit Sharma arrives in Guwahati 73 runs short of 12,000 in one-day internationals

Rohit Sharma walks out in Guwahati on Wednesday 73 runs short of 12,000 in one-day internationals, three days after a start he could not turn into anything larger

The second one-day international between India and West Indies begins at 1.30pm IST at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, with India 1-0 up after an eight-wicket win in the opener at Thiruvananthapuram.

Rohit made 32 from 35 balls in that match, with two fours and three sixes, and was gone in the 12th over with the innings barely begun.

It took his career aggregate to 11,927 runs in 289 one-day internationals, close enough to a figure only two India batters have reached that a single afternoon could settle it.

Two aggregates within one innings

Twelve thousand is the first. Sachin Tendulkar finished on 18,426 and Virat Kohli went past 15,000 in the first match of this series, and no other India batter has got there.

The second is rarer still for a player who bats at the top. Rohit has 9,897 runs as an opener and needs 103 more to become the fourth opening batter in the format's history to reach 10,000 in the position, and the second from India after Tendulkar.

He turned 39 in April and is still making hundreds, the most recent a 138 at Lord's in July, his 34th in the format.

A start that ran out at 32

Rohit and Shubman Gill had taken India past 70 without loss inside the first 10 overs in Thiruvananthapuram before Rohit tried to whip Alzarri Joseph away through the leg side and found deep square leg.

Joseph had put down a chance off him earlier in the innings, so the dismissal ended a second life rather than a first.

Gill made 110 and Kohli finished unbeaten on 139, which left the opener's 32 as a footnote to a chase India controlled from the start.

What Rahane and Karthik made of it

Ajinkya Rahane read the shot as a function of how Rohit is batting rather than a lapse in judgement. "If you bowl the same delivery to Rohit Sharma in the next match, he must be like, 'I will hit it for a six'. He is that confident," he said.

Dinesh Karthik took a similar view of an innings that ended with two India batters already past three figures. "He batted well till he lasted; let's not get too greedy now. One opener got a hundred, the No.3, the best in the world, got a hundred," he said.

Karthik suggested any correction would be a small one. "It could be something as simple as the weight going a touch too much on the off side, a small little technical thing. Once he gets that right, I am sure he will get going," he said.

A record against these opponents

West Indies have been among the more profitable opponents of Rohit's career. He carried 1,613 runs at 57.60 from 37 one-day internationals against them into this series, with three hundreds, 12 fifties and a best of 162.

Guwahati is a rarer stage. Wednesday is the fifth time West Indies have played in the city, after visits in 1983, 1987, 1994 and 2018.

Shai Hope's side arrive needing the match. A defeat hands India the series with a game still to play.

Conditions and preparation

Both squads flew north from Thiruvananthapuram on a chartered flight on Monday and landed in Guwahati in the early evening, with no net session that day. West Indies had the ground first on Tuesday and India followed in the afternoon.

The surface is expected to favour batting, with reliable bounce, a quick outfield and short square boundaries, and evening dew that should make the chase the easier half of the match and the spinners' grip the harder job.

Video of Rohit slipping on the team bus steps in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday night circulated widely in the days after the first match. Neither the BCCI nor the player has reported an injury, and no fitness update has been issued.

One substantial innings in Guwahati would take Rohit to a mark only Tendulkar and Kohli have passed for India, with the series in the same afternoon.

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