Mumbai: Ahead of India’s first match in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, the team will look forward to scoring well in the clash against South Africa.
Rohit Sharma, in particular, will be eager to score, as the player is close to achieving a feat achieved by only 8 Indians so far. The player stands at 11,926 runs and scoring at least 74 runs in this match will make him the 9th Indian to reach 12,000 runs.
The milestone has only been crossed by Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar so far.
Rohit Sharma is the only player in the world to score three double centuries in ODIs, which puts him on the second spot in the list of top international ODI batsmen, behind skipper Virat Kohli.
While the pitch in Southhampton does favour the batsmen, having been host to the England vs Pakistan ODI last month when over 730 runs were scored, South Africa will be no pushover target.
Faf du Plessis and team have suffered losses in both their matches so far at the hands of England and Bangladesh, and recently also had to replace veteran bowler Dale Steyn because of a shoulder injury.
Their momentum gained ahead of their third match in the tournament might be an issue for India, which in contrast, will play its first game of the tournament.
