India opener Rohit Sharma has mastered the art of piling up mammoth individual scores in white-ball cricket. He holds the record of highest individual score (264 vs Sri Lanka) in the 50-over format and is the only batsman in cricket history to have smashed three ODI double tons, four Twenty20 international centuries.
During an Instagram Live session with teammate Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit on Monday (May 18) reflected on his maiden ODI double century and said that there is extra motivation to perform well against Australia.
See Also: Rohit Sharma hails Mumbai Indians’ scouting team; calls the franchise most professional
Rohit had slammed 209 off 158 balls in 2013 in the final ODI at Bangalore to guide India to a series win over Australia.
Recalling that knock, Sharma said: "I know it was an important series for us, I had just started opening the batting for India. We had played the Champions Trophy and then we toured West Indies. After these two, we played the series against Australia, it was a good challenge for me to face this team. You always want to perform well against Australia. During Jaipur ODI, Yuvraj Singh told me that I have a good opportunity to show my skills and score big hundreds."
"It was quite a contest between both the sides in the 2013 series, Australia never gives up easily, they go an extra mile to win the match, it was a hard-fought series, Bengaluru ODI was the decider for us, I never thought I will score 200 in an ODI, the pitch was flat and ball was coming easily on to the bat. There was a halt due to the rain, it was my responsibility to score the runs as Shikhar and Virat were dismissed cheaply," he added.
Sharing further details about the historic knock, Rohit said then skipper MS Dhoni kept on guiding him through the innings.
"With Raina, I had a good partnership, then MS Dhoni and I batted till the end, I got dismissed in the second last over of the innings, MS kept on telling me that he wants me to bat till the last over," he asserted.
Rohit Sharma never looked back after playing that iconic knock. In particular, he started dominating the limited-overs formats at the top of the order.
In 224 ODIs, Rohit has amassed 9115 runs at an average of 49.27 with 29 hundreds so far, while his T20I average reads 32.24 in 108 games with 2773 runs.
(With ANI inputs)
