With Rohit Sharma hitting his 33rd ODI century with an unbeaten knock of 121 runs and Virat Kohli too chipping in with an unbeaten knock of 74 runs to guide India to a nine-wicket win over Australia in the third match of the three-match ODI series at Sydney, it also meant that the batting pair of Sharma and Kohli perhaps played for the last time in Australia. While Sharma had last played in Australia six years ago with Kohli too playing in Australia five years ago, both the Indian batsman had their share of success on the Australian shores and with the series concluding with a win for India with the batting duo stitching together an unbroken 168-run partnership for the second wicket, Sharma talked about his the duo relished playing in Australia. With the duo also sounding hopeful of playing in the 2027 World Cup, it also ended the retirement speculations for the time being for the veteran batters.
“I mean I have always loved coming here, I enjoy playing here in Australia. Fond memories of 2008 and a nice way to finish getting that knock and getting that win. I don’t know we’ll be coming back to Australia but it was fun all these years I have played here. A lot of good memories, bad memories but all in all, I will take the cricket that I played here,” shared Sharma while talking with JioHotstar with Ravi Shastri and Adam Gilchrist.
With Sharma and Kohli having scored more than 5500 runs in partnership for Indian in ODIs, the batting duo have been one of the most prolific run-getters in ODI cricket. With Sharma and Kohli having a poor outing in the first ODIof the series with Sharma playing a knock of eight runs and Kohli making a eight- ball duck, the duo were under pressure.
While Sharma had scored a half-century in the second ODI at Adelaide Oval, Kohli had fallen for a four- ball duck. With both of them having retired from T20I as well Test format, the Australia ODI series was the first time that the duo played at the international level since the Champions Trophy in a March. Sharma talked about how the duo looked towards starting afresh in Perth and how he enjoyed batting in the three games.
With Shastri terming the duo as ‘old dogs with sting in the tail ‘, Sharma was quick to reply in affirmative. “Looks like it. Yes, We enjoy our cricket. We enjoy coming. Most importantly, no matter what accolades we have achieved, it’s important that whenever you get an opportunity to play, you have to come and start fresh, and that’s what we did when we arrived in Perth. Forget what has happened in the last 15-17 years and wanted to start afresh. And that’s how I personally look at all the games and I am sure that’s the same for Virat as well. I enjoyed playing these three games,” Sharma said.
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