Unlike Virat, Rohit didn't do justice to his talent till a large fraction of his career. From 2007 to 2013, he was an on-off player. Being snubbed for the 2011 WC shattered Rohit and he returned with two Man of the Series trophies against West Indies after the WC when the seniors were rested. But 2012 was to be his worst year with as much as 5 single digit scores in a series against SL.
But MSD did not give up on him, and made him opener in 2013 and that was the start of one of biggest redemption stories in Indian cricket. Today, Rohit is practically a legend in Indian cricket. He's the second fastest to 10,000 ODI runs, and he's part of TWO of the only five 5000+ partnership runs in ODI history (with Virat and Shikhar, obviously). After Champions Trophy 2013, he only improved. He got his Test debut in the same year, days after scoring the third double hundred in ODI cricket (his first, it turned out). In 2015 he was India's highest run scorer in ODIs.
He didn't make the most in Tests till again--he was made opener in 2019 after what I would call the highlight of his career: the 2019 World Cup.
He scored a record 5 centuries in the tournament, against good teams like Pakistan and England, plus a 50 against Australia, but I think his highlight was not those centuries, but this:
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We've all heard stories of Rohit's state after losing out in the 2011 World Cup, which India won in his hometown. And we can only guess how much the 2019 trophy meant to him, how much he'd carried the team to the semis (though not taking anything away from the others), and how much it hurt him at this moment that he, droll, placid Rohit Sharma cried in public in the balcony.
This moment teaches us a precious lesson--sometimes you can give your all and still not have what you want. Rohit learnt it. And through my favourite player, I learnt it, too.
Rohit's tears had healed me that day, 10th July 2019. But don't repeat it this time, Ro.
This time you will win the World Cup and bring it back home.
Then I will tell all my previous selfs who has seen India lose in every knockouts that it was destiny waiting for the right time.
