Sharma was born on 30 April 1987 in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra. His mother Purnima Sharma is from Visakhapatnam. His father Gurunath Sharma worked as a caretaker of a transport firm storehouse. Sharma was raised by his grandparents and uncles in Borivali because of his father’s low income. He would visit his parents, who lived in a single-room house in Dombivli, only during weekends. He has a younger brother, Vishal Sharma.

Sharma joined a cricket camp in 1999 with his uncle’s money. His coach at the camp was Dinesh Lad who asked him to change his school to Swami Vivekanand International School where Lad was the coach and which had better cricket facilities. Sharma recollects, “I told him I couldn’t afford it, but he got me a scholarship. So for four years I didn’t pay a penny, and did well in my cricket”. Sharma started as an off-spinner who could bat a bit before Lad noticed his batting ability and promoted him from number eight to open the innings. He excelled in the Harris and Giles Shield school cricket tournaments, scoring a century on debut as an opener.

Sharma made his List A debut for West Zone against Central Zone in the Deodhar Trophy at Gwalior in March 2005. Batting at number eight, he scored 31 (not out) as West Zone won by 3 wickets with 24 balls remaining. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja made their debuts in the same match. It was Sharma’s unbeaten innings of 142 in 123 balls against North Zone at Udaipur in the same tournament that brought him into the limelight. He visited Abu Dhabi and Australia with the India A squad and was then included among India’s 30-member probables list for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy tournament. although he did not make the final squad.

Sharma made his first-class debut for India A against New Zealand A at Darwin in July 2006. He scored 57 and 22 as India won by 3 wickets. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for his Mumbai in the 2006–07 season and scored 205 off 267 balls against Gujarat. Mumbai went on to win the tournament with Sharma scoring a half-century (57) in his second innings in the final against Bengal.

Sharma made his full international debut in a one-day match against Ireland in Belfast on 23 June 2007. This was part of the 2007 Future Cup competition which also involved South Africa. He was number seven in the batting order but did not bat as India won the game by 9 wickets.

Sharma scored his maiden ODI half-century (52) against Pakistan at Jaipur on 18 November 2007 and was selected for the Indian squad going to the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia. In that series, he scored 235 runs at an average of 33.57 with 2 fifties, including 66 in the first final at Sydney when he partnered Sachin Tendulkar for most of India’s successful run chase. After that, however, his ODI performances suffered a downturn and he lost his middle-order position to Suresh Raina. Later, Virat Kohli took his position as the reserve batsman. In December 2009, following his triple century in the Ranji Trophy, he was recalled to the ODI team for the tri-nations tournament in Bangladesh as Tendulkar opted to rest in the series.

Sharma joined the IPL in 2008 when he was signed by the Deccan Chargers franchise, based in Hyderabad, for the sum of US$750,000 a year. In the 2011 auction, he was sold for US$2 million to the Mumbai Indians. He scored his only IPL century in the 2012 tournament with 109 (not out) against the Kolkata Knight Riders. Under his leadership, Mumbai have won the IPL in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020; they also won the former Champions League Twenty20 competition in 2013.

Sharma has spent his entire domestic first-class career at Mumbai. In December 2009, he made his highest career score of 309 (not out) in the Ranji Trophy against Gujarat. In October 2013, upon the retirement of Ajit Agarkar, he was appointed team captain ahead of the 2013–14 season.

Sharma scored his maiden ODI century (114) against Zimbabwe on 28 May 2010 and followed it up with another century in the next match of the tri-series against Sri Lanka on 30 May 2010 by scoring 101 not out. He had a run of poor form in South Africa just before the 2011 World Cup and as a consequence he was left out of India’s squad for the tournament.

Sharma had a disastrous loss of form in 2012 and scored only 168 runs in the whole calendar year at the very low average of 12.92 with just a single half-century. Even so, his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, showed faith in him and his career was revived in 2013. Dhoni decided to move him up the batting order to open the innings with Shikhar Dhawan in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. The pairing was a success and India won the competition, defeating hosts England in the final.

In November 2013, during Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell series, Sharma made his Test debut at Eden Gardens in Kolkata against the West Indies and scored 177, the second-best score on debut by an Indian behind Shikhar Dhawan (187). He followed it up with 111 (not out) in the second Test at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Sharma’s good form continued and, later in the year against Australia, he scored 141 (not out) in Jaipur. He followed that with 209 off 158 balls in Bangalore and established a then world record for the most sixes (16) in a one-day international innings. On 13 November 2014, playing against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Sharma broke the world record for the highest score in a one-day international innings with 264 from 173 deliveries.

Sharma holds the world record for the highest individual score by a batsman playing in a one-day international match, having scored 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on 13 November 2014. He is the only player to have scored three double-centuries in this form of international cricket. In January 2020, Sharma was named as the ODI Player of the Year by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

In March 2015, Sharma made his first appearance in the Cricket World Cup and played in eight matches for India in the 2015 tournament in Australia. India reached the semi-final stage where they were defeated by Australia. Sharma scored 330 runs in the tournament with one century, a score of 137 in the quarter-final tie against Bangladesh.

On 2 October 2015, during the South African tour of India, Sharma scored 106 in the first Twenty20 international at HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala. With that, he became the second Indian cricketer to have scored centuries in all three formats of international cricket. On 8 July 2018, during a series in England, Sharma became the second Indian batsman, after Virat Kohli, to score 2,000 runs in a Twenty20 international career. He was the fifth batsman worldwide to achieve the feat: the others besides Kohli were Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill and Shoaib Malik.

Sharma married Ritika Sajdeh in December 2015. They have a daughter, born in December 2018.

In February 2015, Sharma joined People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to support sterilisation of homeless cats and dogs. When supporting the cause Sharma said, “Sterilisation is important because I feel that if we can stop (the homeless-animal crisis), there will be control of population among the street dogs”.

In September 2015, along with Hollywood actors Matt LeBlanc and Salma Hayek, Sharma joined an anti-poaching campaign in Kenya to save the wild animals of Africa including the last surviving northern white rhinoceros. When joining the campaign Sharma said, “I have been a member of PETA and when I was informed about the cause, I thought it is my duty to join the anti-poaching drive. That’s what got me to Nairobi. I was fascinated to have a look at Sudan (the last northern white rhino) and the sniffer dogs who catch hold of the poachers”.

In December 2017, India’s captain Virat Kohli was rested for the series against Sri Lanka, in preparation for India’s tour to South Africa, which began in the first week of January 2018. In his place, Sharma was named the Indian team captain for the first time in his career and India under his leadership won the series 2–1, their eighth consecutive series win since defeating Zimbabwe in June 2016.

In November 2017, Sharma in a video on social media said that he had tied up with an online store to merchandise mobile phone covers and other items that would use his name and ODI jersey no. 45. Sharma also said to his Twitter followers: “All proceeds from your purchases would go to an animal charity of my choice”.

Sunil Gavaskar considers Sharma to have a batting style similar to those of Virender Sehwag and Viv Richards. In his column for The Times of India in November 2018, Gavaskar said:

In 2018 on “World Rhino Day”, Sharma was announced as the WWF-India Rhino Ambassador. Ravi Singh, the CEO and Secretary General of WWF-India, said about the association with Sharma: “We are encouraged that sportsmen like Rohit are coming forward to support the call for conservation. Rohit’s contribution to international cricket is well known and his supporting the conservation of rhinoceros in India will help the cause of the species. We welcome Rohit into the WWF family”. After taking pledge for the cause of rhino conservation Sharma said, “My love for rhinos sparked when I first heard about Sudan, the last male northern white African rhino who passed away this year thus leading to the inevitable extinction of the entire species and that broke my heart. As the world and I mourned for my fallen friend Sudan, I researched the best way for me to help prevent something like this happening and the best way I know how is to create awareness. After getting in touch with WWF I learnt that 82% of the world’s rhinos reside in India and I am honoured to be WWF-India’s rhino ambassador to spread awareness and do my bit to contribute to the protection and survival of the rhino and help make this world a better place for them”.

In October 2019, in the third Test against South Africa, Sharma scored his 2,000th run and his first double century in Tests. He made 212 in the first innings of the match.

On 15 April 2019, Sharma was appointed vice-captain of India’s squad for the 2019 tournament in England. In the opening match against South Africa, he scored 122, including his 12,000th run in international cricket. In the match against Sri Lanka, he became the first batsman to score five centuries in the same World Cup tournament, and equalled Tendulkar’s record for the most centuries in all World Cup matches. Sharma totalled 648 runs in the tournament to finish as the leading run-scorer and win the ICC’s Golden Bat award, the third Indian player to do so.

On 12 January 2019, in the opening match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sharma scored 133 but it was in vain as India lost by 34 runs. It was his 22nd century in one-day internationals. At Delhi on 13 March 2019, in the fifth and final match of a home series against Australia, Sharma scored 56 including his 8,000th run in one-day internationals. It was his 200th innings. After India v/s West Indies 2nd ODI at Vizag, Sharma surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s record. Sharma now has 187 plus sixes in 116 innings to his name as compared to Dhoni’s 186 in 208 innings at home.

In 2019, he scored the most runs in ODIs by any batsman, with 1490 runs.

In November 2019, in the opening match of the series against Bangladesh, Sharma became the most-capped cricketer for India in T20Is, playing in his 99th match. In the next match of the series, he became the first male cricketer for India to play in 100 T20Is.

On 5 October 2019, during a Test match against South Africa, Sharma became the first batsman to score two centuries in a match on his first appearance as an opening batsman. In the same series, he broke Shimron Hetmyer’s record for the highest number of sixes in a Test series.