Rohit Sharma’s knack of scoring double centuries in ODIs look just another day in the office has what has got everyone rolling their eyes. Sachin Tendulkar may have been the first to score an ODI double century and Virender Sehwag the second but it is Rohit Sharma who’s name comes first when we talk about limited over double hundreds, merely because of number of times he has scored it.
On that account, former Australian cricketer Brett Lee had a special request of Rohit Sharma, Please do not score any more double centuries against Australia.
“He’ll score a lot of double hundreds hopefully. But not many more against Australia, please... Any other country, Pakistan, West Indies perfect but not against Australia,” Lee said in Star Sports show.
Interestingly, the 33-year-old had knocked his first double ton in international cricket against the Aussies in 2013. The Indian opener had scored 209 runs to become the third Indian batsman to smash a double hundred in limited overs cricket after Tendulkar and Sehwag.
The following year, Rohit Sharma took ODI batting to another level when he knocked 264 runs against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2014. To put his knock into perspective, Sri Lanka were bundled out for 251.
Rohit Sharma knocked his third double hundred in 2017 and Sri Lanka were once again at the receiving end.
Recalling his first impression of the Indian opener when he was on his first tour to Australia in 2007, Bret Lee stated that the sound of Rohit’s bat was different from everyone else’s.
“He’s got plenty of years, a lot of cricket left in him. The first impression I got of Rohit Sharma when he came on to the scene was that he was flamboyant. He was very aggressive the way he used to bat but it was the sound of the bat, it’s the first thing that I could think of when I watched him bat. You know when people make that sound when they hit the ball from the centre of the bat, it’s a different sound,” recalled Lee.
Rohit Sharma, who averages almost 50 in ODIs and has 29 centuries under his belt, shattered the World Cup record of smashing most number of hundreds in a single edition where he knocked five centuries in 2019 ODI World Cup in England.
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