Rohit Sharma oozes batting talent: maleable wrists, knack to find the gaps, and the extra half a second when he plays his shots. 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 and the CB Series in Australia in early 2008, scoring two fifties, including a vital 66 in the first final in Sydney. However that class 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 made his place in the Indian limited-overs side more or less permanent, and is also being looked at as one of the replacements with retirements just round the corner in the Test middle order. 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.
