Young Indian opener Shubman Gill is the latest entrant to the growing, yet a small list, of men’s batters with double centuries in ODI cricket. By cracking 208 runs against New Zealand in Hyderabad in what was only his 19th career ODI, Gill, at the age of 23 years, became the youngest men’s ODI double centurion.
5. Rohit Sharma – 264 vs Sri Lanka, 2014
Nobody, not even Rohit Sharma, knew what havoc he was going to create at the Eden Gardens on 13 November 2014 against Sri Lanka. After being dropped a catch by Perera in the first half of his innings, Rohit Sharma went on to smash a century, converted it into a double century.
He didn’t stop there either: Rohit hammered 264 runs off 173 balls, and batted throughout the innings, stroking 33 fours and 9 sixes in his record-breaking, once-in-a-lifetime knock. Sri Lanka, in response, were bowled out for 251 – the entire team scoring 13 runs fewer than Sharma’s score alone.
4. Martin Guptill – 237* vs West Indies, 2015
New Zealand opener Martin Guptill lit up the home crowd in Wellington with a double-century in the 2015 World Cup. That it came in the quarter-final against West Indies made it even more special.
Guptill whacked 24 fours and 11 sixes in his 237 unbeaten innings from 163 balls. New Zealand won the quarterfinal by 143 runs.
3. Virender Sehwag – 219 vs West Indies, 2011
Sehwag was the second batsman to scored a double century in ODI, and broke Tendulkar’s record of 200*. With his 219 runs innings, scored vs West Indies in 2011 in Indore, Sehwag was the then-highest individual men’s scorer in ODIs. The dynamic opener cracked 25 fours and 7 sixes in his entertaining knock.
2. Chris Gayle 215 vs Zimbabwe, 2015
The Universe Boss, Chris Gayle is the first batsman to score a double century in the men’s ODI World Cup when he ransacked 215 runs against the hapless Zimbabwe bowlers in a group game in the 2015 World Cup match in Canberra. In the party that Gayle had, at the expense of the non-threatening Zimbabwean bowlers, the left-hander walloped 10 fours and 16 sixes!
1. Fakhar Zaman 210* vs Zimbabwe 2018
The Zimbabwe bowlers were subjected to conceding another ODI double century, by another left-hander – the Pakistani opener Fakhar Zaman. In a 2018 ODI game in Bulawayo, Zaman hammered 210* with the help of 24 fours and 5 sixes, and was involved in a world-record partnership of 304 runs with Imam-ul-Haq.