Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan heaped praise on Rohit Sharma after the Indian skipper ended his more than three-year-long century drought in the third and final ODI against New Zealand in Indore.
The 35-year-old scored his 30th ODI century during Team India’s 90-run win over New Zealand in the final ODI to sweep the home series in Indore on January 24. This was his first ODI ton since January 2020.
With his blistering knock of 101 runs off 85 balls, Rohit tied Ricky Ponting’s illustrious record for the most centuries in ODI cricket history.
The veteran opener is now only behind Virat Kohli (46) and Sachin Tendulkar (50) in the list of players who have scored the most centuries all-time in the 50-over format of the game.
Meanwhile, Pathan said that Rohit (9782 runs) has taken full command of the Indian batting since he started opening and will cross the 10,000-run mark in ODI cricket soon. The former all-rounder also mentioned that Rohit has scored runs all over the world and even compared him to Ricky Ponting.
Irfan Pathan said on Star Sports: “He has taken full command of the Indian batting since he started opening, either through a good average or with the approach he has changed in the last one to one-and-a-half years - with a good strike rate. So, he is continuously contributing. A century has come after three years and 10,000 runs will also come.”
Pathan signed off by saying, “He has equaled Ricky Ponting's 30 ODI centuries. Even in his (Ponting's) country, he (Rohit) has an average of around 53, which is a huge number and has scored five hundreds also there. He has an average of 64 in England as well. So, he has scored runs everywhere and we have seen him scoring runs in India regularly in any case.”
Rohit will next be seen in action against Australia at home in the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, beginning February 9.
