From 194 to 264 to even 300: Rohit Sharma is quietly proving that no ODI record is safe anymore

The beautiful thing about grainy images is that they leave just that space to fill in the blanks with your imagination.

In the peak of the Indian summer in 1997, Saeed Anwar nonchalantly and with all wrists intact, went across and swept a medium-paced delivery from Sachin Tendulkar to the fine-leg boundary to move past Viv Richards’ 189 and set a record for the highest individual score in One-Day International cricket. He raised his helmet and bat, only to be hugged by a lean-looking (well, comparatively!) Inzamam-Ul-Haq at the other end. As a young child, that image became a prevailing memory as my thirst, hunger and love for the game grew.

For some reason, before the age of instant YouTube highlights, I had wrongly assumed that the match had taken place in Sharjah, perhaps because of the standing ovation that greeted Anwar after he reached the landmark. It was only recently that I realized my mistake – this was the old cauldron, the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai where cricket fans would always appreciate greatness.

The enigma of the 194

The incredibly fluent Anwar had moved to 190 with that shot. Another crackling boundary took him to 194. A score that would remain memorable in the years to come. But, there was to be no double ton as a brilliant catch from a tumbling Sourav Ganguly removed him.

194 was an iconic, tantalising number. Unlike, say a batting average of 99.94 or a 100 international centuries, 194 had that “so-near-yet-so-far” sort of tease about it. It was within reach but yet, everyone seemed to fail just when it was in sight. Two years later, Ganguly neared it with a whirlwind 183 at the 1999 World Cup (a score MS Dhoni equalled in 2005 against the same opposition). Sachin Tendulkar hit an unbeaten 186 in 1999 against New Zealand and Sanath Jayasuriya looked set to even score a triple in a marauding rampage against India in an One-Day International in Sharjah in 2000, before falling five, just five, runs short of that magic figure.

Fast forward another 20 years, this time from the heat, humidity and dust of Chennai to the wintry cold of Mohali. Rohit Sharma “The Hitman” is on a rampage, the likes of which we have — and this sentence itself seems incredible in isolation considering the magnitude of his achievement — seen before. He flicks through mid-wicket off a hapless Thisara Perera and takes a leap in mid-air. His third double hundred in an ODI. Pause and read that again for a moment. His third double-hundred in ODI cricket.

Another double ton, coming right up

And yet, in the context of where the game has been going recently, there is a lazy inevitability about his achievement. Nowadays, cricket fans have seemingly taken it for granted that on the day Rohit Sharma gets going, more often than not, a double hundred is there for his taking. The magnitude of his feat does not, anymore, lie in his individual scores but in his overall numbers – his third double hundred in a format where only four others have touched that magic figure.

Rohit will probably end his career as among the greatest ODI batsmen of all time. His 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014, the highest individual score in ODI cricket, will stay as testament to that. But consider for a moment: Will that 264 ever occupy that intriguing, mythical territory which Anwar’s 194 once did?

It will probably not and the reason for that is not Rohit Sharma himself but the era in which he plays his cricket. Anwar’s record remained insurmountable for 13 long years. Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry only equalled it in 2009 and it took a Sachin Tendulkar master-class in 2010 to finally breach it. But in those 13 years, despite ODIs cricket’s many changes, from the introduction of Powerplays to the introduction of Twenty20, it remained stiff, defiant, almost as if daring a changing world to disrespect it.

200 is the new normal

But once the mark was breached, it never regained that enigma. In just the seven years since Tendulkar breached the 194 mark in 2010, a double hundred has been scored seven times in ODIs. Just as scores of 350+ in ODI cricket have become accepted, even conventional, the 200-mark is not special anymore. Nowadays, it’s almost a basic truth: any half-decent batsman on a good day has a chance of reaching that mark.

Fine, you might say, but what about Rohit Sharma’s 264? Can’t that take over the exalted position Saeed Anwar and his 194 occupied?

Unlikely, because the way things are going, the day isn’t far off when even a triple century in ODI cricket won’t be an impossible feat. In fact, Rohit Sharma’s 264 isn’t even the highest individual score in List A cricket either. That honour goes to a man named Ali Brown who scored a whopping 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan, way back in 2002. More recently, Shikhar Dhawan scored 248 in a warm-up match against South Africa A in 2013.

It’s only a matter of time. If you’re not convinced, look at Twenty20 cricket. When the format first started, how many people would have bet that a batsman could score 150 in just 20 overs? Well, as it turns out, it’s actually very normal – 10 batsmen have already scored 150 or above in this format. Virat Kohli scored a century in just 14 overs against Kings XI Punjab in the 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League.

There are no final frontiers in ODI cricket anymore. Every record is up for grabs. And considering the kind of damage he can do, don’t bet against Rohit Sharma becoming ODI cricket’s first triple centurion.