Rohit Sharma      

Rohit Sharma oozes batting talent: malleable wrists, knack to find the gaps, and the extra half a second when he plays his shots. However, for a player of his class, the first six years of his international career were frustrating for him, the team, and the spectators, as the odd delightful innings was followed and preceded by plenty of failures. It all came together finally in 2013, when Rohit was promoted to open the innings in ODIs. The move turned out to be a masterstroke, as Rohit found form in the Champions Trophy, and then went into overdrive in the ODI series against Australia, scoring two centuries, including 209, only the third double in ODI cricket. That led to a place in the Test team, and Rohit responded by scoring centuries in his first two Test innings, becoming the fifth batsman to do so. A year later, he became the first batsman to hit two ODI double-hundreds, in an innings where he smashed the record for the highest score with 264 off 173 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens.

For the first six years of his career, though, Rohit struggled to come up with the sort of numbers which would justify his talent. He first came to limelight when he exuded class at No. 3 in the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2006. He took that class with him when he played for India in their triumphant World Twenty20 campaign in 2007 and the CB Series in Australia in early 2008, scoring two fifties, including a vital 66 in the first final in Sydney. However that ability to look good at the crease didn't translate into long innings in his first two first-class seasons for Mumbai. He kept making strides in the big league, though. He was bought for US$750,000 by the Deccan Chargers in the IPL, and made 404 runs at 36.73 including four fifties.

He pressed a claim for higher things through two centuries in the 2008-09 Ranji final, a feat last achieved by Sachin Tendulkar and only four others before him. However, his lack of consistency meant he wasn't a part of India's World Cup-winning squad, and returned to national duty only when the top players were rested on the tour to the West Indies in 2011. There, he made his presence felt with consistent scores in the ODIs and the Man-of-the-Series award. But his form continued to fluctuate in the months that followed, and he remained one of India's most promising but unfulfilled talents over the next couple of years. All that changed in 2013, and with Tendulkar retiring from Tests and ODIs that year, Rohit looked set to be a permanent fixture in the Indian team across formats.
ESPNcricinfo staff