Rohit Sharma explains why he loves playing against Australia

Rohit Sharma scored his 14th ODI century for India. (PTI Photo)

Rohit Sharma steered India to a seven-wicket win over Australia with a fluent century in the fifth ODI in Nagpur on Sunday. After missing the three-figure mark in Bangalore, he made sure he reaches his 14th ODI hundred on Sunday. After being named Man-of-the-Match for the 125-run innings, Rohit said that he loves playing against Australia as they are very competitive and give nothing away easily.

“I would love to have such a record against all the teams. I’ve always loved playing against this Australian team – they are very competitive, they never give away anything easily,” Rohit said after scoring his 6th ODI century against Australia.

Explaining how he scores those centuries so easily and especially in Nagpur where the pitch was on the slower side, Rohit said that he did not do any extraordinary and just tried to keep things simple. He said that the Australia bowlers tried bowling to his stumps and the wicket was difficult to play on but once he got his eye in, it was all about rotating the strike.

“It was just a bit of cramping. Obviously it’s been very hot here. I’ve always kept it very simple. Not to complicate things too much. Since I’ve started opening, I’ve always kept things simple. Initially it was tough. They came on to the stumps compared to the first few games, and the wicket wasn’t playing too good either. Once I got my eye in, it was just about rotating and staying ahead of the run rate all the time,” he said.

Rohit had a phenomenal series against Australia but he said that he can improve on a lot of aspects in his game as he knows his strengths and weakness as a player.

“There are certain areas I still need to work on – I know my strengths and weaknesses and I try to work around that,” he said.