Rohit Sharma on breaking Chris Gayle’s international sixes record: Taken a leaf out of his book

India captain Rohit Sharma said he had taken a leaf out of Chris Gayle’s book after breaking the West Indian batter’s record on Wednesday.

Rohit achieved a significant milestone in international cricket during India’s win over Afghanistan on Wednesday. The Indian captain broke Gayle’s record for the most sixes hit in international cricket.

The West Indian batter previously held the record with 553 sixes across 483 international matches. However, Sharma managed to surpass this record in just 473 innings, hitting a total of 556 sixes across all formats of international cricket. This includes 297 sixes in ODIs, 182 in T20Is, and 77 in Test matches.

The record-breaking six came off a delivery from Naveen Ul-Haq, just after Sharma had reached his half-century.

Speaking after the match to BCCI, Rohit said that he never thought he would be able to reach the milestone when he had started playing and claimed his focus will be on continuing his hard work.

“When I started playing this game, I never thought I’ll be able to hit sixes, leave alone that many sixes. But I never thought I’d be able to hit sixes like that. Obviously, there’s a lot of work that has gone in over the years. So, I’m quite happy with the work that I’ve done, you know, in so many years.”

“I want to continue to do what I’ve been doing. So my focus will be on continuing to do what I do. But yeah, it’s a very small happy moment.”

Rohit said that he has taken a leaf out of Gayle’s book over the years and claimed the West Indian would have been happy about the achievement as they both wear the same jersey number.

Universe boss is Universe boss. I’ve taken a leaf out of his book over the years. We’ve seen him as a six-hitting machine. We both wear the same jersey, number 45. So the number 45 has done it, so I’m sure he’s happy about it for us.

The match on Wednesday was a resounding victory for India. The Indian team chased down a target of 273 runs with 15 overs to spare, winning by 8 wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Sharma played a pivotal role in this victory, scoring a match-winning 131 off 84 balls, which included five sixes and 16 fours. His century came off just 63 balls, marking the fastest century by an Indian batsman in a World Cup game. This performance earned him the Player of the Match award.