ESPN Not Including Rohit Sharma in Top 25 Cricketers List Doesn’t Sit Well With Fans

Apart from Rohit Sharma, fans were also upset that legendary West Indies batter Brian Lara was absent from ESPN's list of 'greatest' cricketers.

ESPN Not Including Rohit Sharma in Top 25 Cricketers List Doesn’t Sit Well With Fans

Rohit Sharma did not make it to ESPN Cricinfo's list of the greatest cricketers from the 21st century. (via India Today)

Fans of former Indian captain Rohit Sharma expressed disappointment over the 39-year-old’s exclusion from ESPN’s compilation of the 25 ‘greatest’ cricketers. While Sharma was omitted, the list acknowledged the achievements of seven other legendary Indian players.

An all-star ESPN Cricinfo jury, comprising former cricketers Wasim Akram, Ian Bishop, Greg Chappell, Allan Donald, Matthew Hayden, Ajit Agarkar, and others, ranked the greatest men’s cricketers from the 21st century. The jury named Jacques Kallis as the greatest all-rounder, Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest batter, and Muttiah Muralitharan as the greatest bowler, for their performances between 2000 and 2025 across formats.

India secured the most spots on the leaderboard, with seven players selected, surpassing Australia and England, which had five each. While Tendulkar was the highest-ranked Indian player at no.2, he was followed by Virat Kohli, India’s modern-day chase-master, at no.3. Rahul Dravid (12), MS Dhoni (14), Jasprit Bumrah (15), Virender Sehwag (22), and R Ashwin (25) followed the duo on the list. 

However, what surprised many was Rohit Sharma, often recognized as one of the greatest opening batters of all time, failing to make the list of the ‘greatest’ cricketers of the 21st century. It was appalling, given the 39-year-old is one of the 14 players to have scored over 20,000 runs in international cricket, including Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. His tally stands at 20,109 runs in 541 innings, at an average of 42.33, including 50 centuries and 111 half-centuries. 

A T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy-winning captain, the Mumbai-born icon has several records to his name, most notably being the only player to score three ODI double-hundreds. The undisputed king of maximums, Sharma stands on top of the all-time list of six-hitters with 650 of them, way ahead of 2nd-placed Chris Gayle, who hit 553 sixes. His achievements in the ODI World Cup are even more remarkable, as Rohit Sharma remains the sole player to score five hundreds in a single edition in 2019.

Rohit Sharma’s longevity suggests that he should have been an obvious choice for ESPN’s list. Separately, the jury also named the greatest women’s cricketer, selecting Australia’s Ellyse Perry, who boasts figures of over 7,000 runs and more than 300 wickets in international cricket.

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Fans furious over Rohit Sharma’s non-selection in ESPN’s list of ‘greatest’ cricketers

It left fans irked that Rohit Sharma did not make it to ESPN’s list of the ‘greatest’ cricketers of the 21st century, despite his status as one of the finest white-ball batters of all time. They took to social media platforms to share their reactions, slamming the jury as ‘incompetent’. 

Rohit Sharma fans
Fans slammed ESPN Cricinfo for not picking Rohit Sharma among the greatest cricketers of the 21st century. (via Indian Express)

One fan was quick to point out that the 39-year-old would easily surpass a majority of the players picked. He broke down Sharma’s stats, noting that the veteran opener has 50 international hundreds to his name, which is more than nine others on the list, including Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, and AB de Villiers. Many others also suggested that Sharma is ahead in terms of runs scored and captaincy. 

Other reactions included some fans expressing that the former players on the ESPN jury should feel ‘ashamed’ for excluding Rohit Sharma. A few fans made light of the situation by jokingly suggesting the 39-year-old’s fitness was the reason for his absence. Critics argued that the consistency of the selected batsmen, evidenced by their career averages compared to Sharma’s, justified his exclusion.

Another section of fans suggested that several others were left out of the list, including Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly, and Anil Kumble. A particular fan also drew attention to the absence of Shakib Al-Hasan, despite his prolonged tenure as the world’s number one all-rounder.

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