Rohit Sharma will captain India for the first time in an ODI World Cup when India open their World Cup 2023 campaign on October 8 against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
With Shubman Gill ruled out of the contest against Australia due to dengue and its consequent fever, the onus is now even more on Rohit Sharma, the other opener, to not only give India a cracking start, which he’s been doing to good effect in recent times, but also to bat for long and deep into the innings, something which he hasn’t done in ODI cricket for a while.
Rohit has scored only 1 century in ODIs since the start of 2021; that ton came earlier this year against New Zealand in Indore, and he got out in the 27th over, missing another potential double-century.
Since he became the captain, Sharma has taken the responsibility of attacking from the onset of his innings, unlike the earlier times when he used to settle and bed in and then annihilate bowling attacks in the latter part of India’s innings.
He has walked the talk about the aggressive brand of modern-day cricket he wishes for himself and his team to bat in. His strike rate has shot up but that has come at a cost of his average going down and his balls per innings coming down.
Talking about Sunday’s fixture we look at Rohit Sharma’s ODI stats and numbers in Chennai.
IND vs AUS: Rohit Sharma ODI stats and numbers in Chennai
Surprisingly, Rohit Sharma has poor numbers in ODI matches in Chennai: in 7 ODI innings here, Rohit has scored only 140 runs at a lowly average of 23 with a best score of 36. He doesn’t have any fifty or century in ODIs in Chennai.
India would be hoping Rohit makes big improvement on his record in Chennai on Sunday against Australia.
Not too long ago, Australia and India had met in Chennai in an ODI in March 2023. Rohit had scored 30 runs in that game which India lost by 21 runs as Adam Zampa took 4 wickets.
