IND vs SA ODI: Comparing Rohit Sharma to Shahid Afridi, who broke Afridi's world record on Sunday, is like comparing apples to oranges, a former Indian cricketer said.

Atul Wassan On Rohit Sharma breaking Shahid Afridi's Record

Rohit Sharma made history in the first ODI against South Africa, breaking former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi's world record. Rohit hit three sixes in his 57-run innings, becoming the batsman with the most sixes in ODIs. Afridi held this record for nearly 10 years. Following this, former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan disliked the comparison between Rohit and Afridi, calling it akin to comparing apples to oranges.

Team India won the first ODI played in Ranchi by 17 runs, the match was thrilling till the last over. Batting first, India had scored a huge total of 349 runs. Virat Kohli played a brilliant inning of 135 runs. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul scored half centuries. Rohit also broke Afridi's world record of hitting the most sixes in ODIs by hitting 3 sixes. Former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan said on comparing the records of Rohit Sharma and Shahid Afridi, "I think, if it is compared to Shahid Afridi's record, it is like comparing apples and oranges."

Rohit Sharma's impact is huge - Atul Wassan

Speaking to ANI, Atul Wassan said, "If this is compared to Shahid Afridi's record, it's like comparing apples to oranges. Because it's a big thing for an opener to achieve this. Afridi's role was to come in later and play like this, to finish the innings. But as an opener, if someone makes such a big record in less than 100 innings, it shows how big his impact has been on the Indian team."
 

He further said, "You can judge from this one thing that if your opener plays such good shots, then how many times he wins you matches. He maintains your strike rate as an opener, so this shows why he and Team India are so successful."

Top 5 batsmen with the most sixes in ODIs

• Rohit Sharma (India) – 352*
• Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) – 351
• Chris Gayle (West Indies) – 331
• Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) – 270
• MS Dhoni (India) – 229