Read it in Hindi.

Read it in Marathi.

From a promising youngster, to a star player, to captain, to the Hitman avatar, to leader personified! These 12 years almost feel like an era. Rohit Sharma has grown, Mumbai Indians have grown, we, the Paltan, have grown. 

On January 8, 2011, in Bengaluru, at the first mega auction since the league began, it was between 12:18pm and 12:24pm IST that the drama unfolded. Rohit’s name came out of the sack, Punjab, Deccan Chargers and MI (duh!), were caught up in a three-way fight. Oh there was no way we were stopping. We had to bring home the local boy. And so finally, at 2 million USD, ** play the victory music ** 

Just to put things in terms of statistics, here’s what he’s achieved for us: 

* Five IPL titles, two Champions League T20 titles. Nobody even comes close.

* Man of the Match performance in the 2015 IPL Finals with a top-class 50 (26) to set the tone for MI to put a massive 200+-run total

* The highest run-scorer for MI with 4982 runs (IPL + CL T20)

* Highest capped player for MI

* Batting records: Most runs, most fours, most 50+ scores, most MoM awards – All MI records

* Second most number of wins in the IPL as captain (81 wins in 143 games) 

2013 was when the victory parade started and we then just got on a roll, winning title after title. This is Rohit 13^th year. There’s something about this number. As we get into it, there’s just this feeling all around that something special is around the corner. 

Come on Rohit, it’s time to bring home #6. But before that, congratulations, and thank you for each of these last 12 years.