Aakash Chopra, this time had his say on a new debate. Chopra, this time has given his views over a burning topic, which has kept cricketing fans engaged for a while now. The question is none other than – Who is the better ODI opener between Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar? While many old-school fans would outright dismiss the comparison between the ‘God’ and a human being but this is a topic that has been relevant in the Indian cricket in the past few years. Since Rohit has taken over the role of an ODI opener, he has taken the world cricket by storm. The echos of comparison between two Mumbaikars are bound to increase with the time if Rohit keeps on performing consistently as he has done in the recent past. Now, Aakash Chopra also has jumped into the debate and picked the better ODI opener between the two.
Aakash pointed out the similarities between the career trajectory of both Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar. Both players started their career as a middle-order batsman before getting a promotion to the opener. Their numbers in the middle-order are almost similar as Tendulkar scored 1758 runs in 66 innings, averaging 30.84, Rohit scored 1978 runs in 81 innings averaging 30.43. As an opener, Sachin scored 15310 runs and Rohit has already scored 7148 runs. But, while Sachin scored those runs at an average of 48.29, Sharma has scored his runs at an average of 58.11. Chopra then compared both players’ 100s conversion ratio per inning. Rohit again trumped Master Blaster as Rohit scores a hundred after every 5.1 innings, Sachin used to do so in every 7.6 innings.
Aakash Chopra didn’t compare both players based on mere numbers only. He also took the parameters like changing cricket, powerplay rules, 2 new balls, smaller grounds, flat pitches, and thicker bats in the context.
After comparing all the parameters, Chopra has picked the Hitman over the Master Blaster as the better ODI opener. He also went on to say if Rohit Sharma can continue to perform consistently, then he can settle this debate for the once and the all soon.