India and Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma achieved a massive captaincy milestone in the IPL 2023 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. As soon as The Hitman walked out for the toss in what was match number 5 in this edition of the T20 tournament, he achieved this record.
The MI skipper became only the second Indian to captain in 200 T20 matches. He joined an elite list which only has one Indian in this list so far in MS Dhoni. Overall only three cricketers have captained in over 200 T20 matches with West Indies' Darren Sammy being the second on the list with 208 matches as captain in the game's shortest format.
MS Dhoni is on top of the list, in terms of matches as captain, and has helmed a T20 side for 307 times and counting in T20 cricket. It is pertinent to note that four of the five cricketers with most matches as a captain in T20s are Indians with Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir also in the list apart from Rohit and Dhoni.
Having said that Rohit couldn't make his 200th match as captain memorable with a good innings under his belt as he had a struggled stay at the middle before he eventually got out for 1 off 10 balls. He had already been given an opportunity when his catch was dropped on the bowling of Mohammed Siraj when the bowler himself and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik collided but he couldn't make the most of it departing in the very next over.
He was the third MI batter to get out inside the powerplay, falling to Akash Deep in the sixth over of the innings after the Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and invited Mumbai to bat first. Ishan Kishan and Cameroon Green were the others to depart.