Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma has five hundreds in this World CupICC Twitter

By scoring his fifth century of this World Cup, in the match against Sri Lanka, Rohit Sharma equaled a massive record. It is of most hundreds in World Cup cricket, and the man he has joined at the top of the pyramid is none other than the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

However, what should blow the mind of cricket fans is the discrepancy in the number of innings the two men have played to get to this mark. Sachin played 44 World Cup innings and ended up with 6 hundreds. Rohit, on the other hand, reached this mark in only his 16th World Cup innings! Yes, you heard that right, just his 16th World Cup innings.

Sachin first appearance in the biggest ODI cricket event was in the 1992 edition hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Eventually, the Master Blaster participated in 6 World Cups and got his sixth hundred against South Africa in what was his 41st innings.

Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar has six World Cup centuriesRitam Banerjee/Getty Images

Rohit played in a World Cup for the first time at the last edition, in 2015. This is only his second time at the biggest event.

Of course, it is unfair to compare records across generations. Cricket is much more batsman-friendly than it was in the time of the great Tendulkar. The quality of bowling is also not as good as it was in the 1990s and in the first half of the noughties. But still, a gap of 25 innings is incredible.

The only question is: can Rohit continue to perform like this in the future. It is likely that he will play at least two more World Cups, if form and health persist. But, in this game, things can change quickly.

What is incredible about Rohit's performance is the fact that he scored just one century in the last edition of the tournament – against Bangladesh in the quarter-final. By scoring five in this tournament already, he has also set a new record for number of centuries in one World Cup. No other batsman has managed five. The previous record was four by Kumar Sangakkara in the 2015 edition.