How India's 2023-25 run in white-ball cricket is amongst best-ever in sport's history?

India won both the last year's T20 World Cup at Barbados and the Champions Trophy in Dubai undefeated. Had they won the 2023 World Cup, they would have had all the ICC titles in white-ball cricket at the same time, that too undefeated, which no team has ever managed to do.

Australia, following the 2007 50-over World Cup win and 2009 CT triumph, could not register this feat after losing to England in the T20 WC 2010 finals, while India also lost the 2014 T20 WC finals to Sri Lanka after winning the 2011 50-over World Cup, 2013 CT, missing out on opportunities to do so, as per ESPNCricinfo.

India is having one of the most dominant runs ever in white-ball cricket, rivalling West Indies and Australia at their peaks. From 1975-83, West Indies reached the finals of all World Cup, winning 15 matches, losing just two. They did win the 1975 and 1979 World Cups unbeaten, but a loss to India in the group stage and in the final in the 1983 World Cup put a small blemish on their resume.

Aussies also pulled off a World Cup hat-trick from 1999 to 2007. They also won the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Their World Cup title wins in 2003 and 2007 came without a loss. Over this eight-year-peak during which a strong Australian line-up consisting of Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne etc unleashed a reign of terror in the cricketing world, Australia won 37 of 44 matches across all these tournaments, losing just six.

Skipper Ponting, who led Australia in five of these tournaments, had a record of 30 wins and just three losses, while winning 50-over crowns in 2003 and 2007 and the 2006 CT.

England's run from the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup till 2022 T20 World Cup, which saw them emerge as double world champions, comes close but was not as dominant as they lost six out of 23 matches they played in these two events.

-Rohit: The man for big tournaments

Rohit, now with two successive white-ball titles in his hands, is a man for big tournaments, having an incredible win-loss record of 27 wins to three losses in ICC white-ball events. His win-loss ratio of 9.00 is the highest for any captain who has skippered the team for at least matches in all main limited-overs cricket ICC tournaments, the 50-over and 20-over World Cups and Champions Trophy.

Rohit is third on the list of most wins at ICC men's events, behind MS Dhoni (41 wins, which includes one bowl-out win) and Ponting (40 wins).

The Hitman's record in ODI tournaments is even more impressive, with 24 wins and just two defeats in 27 matches. The Champions Trophy marked his third ODI title as a captain, after Asia Cup 2018 and 2023, both multi-team events.

Rohit has also matched ex-Pakistan captain Imran Khan, Ponting and MS Dhoni, winning four white-ball multi-team tournaments, the most by any captain

Rohit's win-loss ratio in ODIs of 3.50 is the second-highest among captains to have led in 50-plus matches, behind West Indies legend Clive Llyod.

He has led with the bat in these tournaments, with 1,034 runs in 24 matches and 24 innings at an average of 44.95 and a stunning strike rate of over 126, with a century and seven fifties. His best score is 131.

-Why is India so dominant?

India's exceptional batting line-up, which includes a fiery opening pair of Rohit and Shubman Gill, the safety net of Virat Kohli, firepower in the middle order with KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and all-rounders Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, coupled with brilliant adaptability of their bowling attack to varying conditions have earned India unprecedented dominance.

Traditionally, they play with three pace options in ODIs, but on Dubai's slower wickets, they played with four spinners in their line-up, with Axar and Jadeja offering additional cushion with the bat.

Two-thirds of overs and nearly 80 per cent of overs against New Zealand (both group stage and final) in the Champions Trophy were delivered by spinners.

Under Hitman's captaincy, bowler's have averaged just 23.14 per wicket in ODI tournaments and delivered a wicket every 30 balls. They have bowled out their opposition 19 out of 26 occasions and conceded 300-plus only once, in the semifinal of the 2023 WC against New Zealand, where they skittled out Kiwis for 327 runs after making 397/4 themselves.

The numbers reflect the skill and effectiveness of Rohit's bowlers. They have made sure India does not get to chase big totals and have led the team to big wins while defending. Only Ponting's Australia (22.13) and Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lanka (23.07) have produced better bowling averages in ODI tournaments.

India's batters are powerhouses in ODI events, averaging 46.92. The strike rate of 93.46 collectively, is only bettered by South Africa under AB de Villiers (96.01) and England under Eoin Morgan (95.11).

-Transformation from the top-to-bottom

One of the key hallmarks of Rohit's ODI captaincy is a more aggressive batting style, which focuses on maximising on the powerplay, and batting-friendly field restrictions. This has helped India set big targets and stay steps ahead of their opponent in challenging run-chases.

Since February 2022, when Rohit played his first ODI series as a full-time skipper, India has been scoring at a brilliant run rate of 5.87 per over and averages 55.15 per wicket in the powerplay during the first 10 overs.

In comparison, the collective run rate of other top five teams (Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa) is 5.39 and they average 34.64 per wicket. India has scored nearly five more runs than other top team in the first ten overs and averages 21 runs more per wicket.

In the last few years before Rohit took over, India was not performing well in this first ten overs phase. In the 2010s, India generally scored around four runs more than other top sides, largely due to a swashbuckling Virender Sehwag. But they averaged a couple of runs less than others at that time per wicket.

There was a decline post-2011-WC, with the team moving from the senior-most crop of players such as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar. For two years after the 2011 WC win, they averaged just 29.3 runs in the first 10 overs.

When Rohit-Shikhar Dhawan's opening pair shot to fame with the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013, the team did have slow starts but their average improved. When Virat was made captain in 2017, the scoring rate went up but they still lagged behind other teams, with an average of only three runs higher.

Before taking up captaincy, Rohit struck at 69.87 in ODIs and averaged 36.94 in the first ten overs. But over the last three years, Hitman has fired all cylinders in this phase of the game, averaging 61.52 and striking at 119.62.

In comparison, other Indian batters have scored at a strike rate of 80.93 in this phase collective. Gill's score of 1,126 runs at a strike rate of 93.83. His ability to hold one end steady while Rohit goes all out has been crucial for India's batting.

-A well-settled batting line-up

India's recent ODI success is also because of stability in line-up, with openers Rohit-Gill followed by Virat at number three, Shreyas Iyer at four, and KL Rahul at either five or six. These five batters have played 21 ODIs together, with 18 wins and two losses, one loss came against Australia in the WC final and the other one during the Sri Lanka ODI series, where Iyer and KL came to the crease at number six and seven.

Four of these five stars average above 50 in these 21 matches, except for Rohit (49.04), who makes up for it with a massive strike rate of 116.51.

These five batters have scored 13 centuries in 21 matches, with Virat himself scoring six of them.

-Age no bar for the Hitman

Rohit became India's all-format skipper just months before turning 35 and now at the age of 37 and 313 days, he has two white-ball titles to his name. The only captain older than Rohit to win an ICC title is Imran, who was 39 years and 172 days old when Pakistan secured their maiden 1992 World Cup.

Brian Lara is another captain to have won an ICC title after turning 35, winning the CT 2004 as a captain at the age of 35 years and 146 days.

Rohit's batting has only got better with age. He is among 45 batters to have scored 1,000 plus ODI runs after 35 years of age, topping the charts with a strike rate of 117.37 and only six batters have an average better than his 49.60. Before turning 35, Rohit's strike rate was 89.01 and there has been a massive shift in his batting later in his career. His career strike rate has now improved to 92.80.

Rohit is also among 19 batters to have recorded 1,500-plus runs in men's ODIs before and after 35 years of age. In these, Rohit's strike rate ratio after turning 25 is 1.32, the best out of all.

The change in batting approach has resulted in bigger scores and lower conversion rates as he has managed just three tons in 42 ODI innings. His consistency is still the same though as he averaged 48.60 before turning 35, one run lower than in the past three years. (ANI)