Rohit Sharma has plundered runs all over the world in limited-overs format. However, scoring a big hundred at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) must have felt pretty special considering he played a lot of matches while growing up at the venue.

On Monday, after receiving the Man-of-the-Match award for his knock against the West Indies, Rohit didn’t hesitate from publicly professing his love for the CCI and said he was confident of doing well.

“I have played a lot of cricket at the CCI. It’s a very good pitch and you get value for the shots. You don’t need to hit the ball hard here. You just need to place the ball in the gaps. That’s what I was trying to do. When you come to a ground where you have played enough cricket, you feel confident going into the match,” he said during the post-match press conference.

The 31-year-old, who registered the second 150-plus score in the series and became only the second batsman after Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza to do so, revealed how the experience of playing on the ground stood him in a good stead. “I understand the pitch here and what it does. When spinners are bowling, I know what helps them. I had a lot of opportunity of playing at the CCI and it was about doing what I have always done.”

Rohit, the only batsman to have scored multiple double tons in the ODIs, had a chance of slamming his fourth double hundred on Monday but he fell short of the mark by 38 runs. When asked if another double hundred was on his mind, he said he never lets his mind crowd with a thought of a milestone.

“It never came across my mind to score a double ton. I always think of scoring as many as runs as possible. The three double hundreds that I have got, I never thought of getting them. Rayudu was telling me from the other end to try to get to a double hundred. But I only wanted to score runs so that we get enough runs because CCI can be tricky in terms of chasing. Thankfully, we bowled well and got them out cheaply,” he said.

PRAISE FOR KHALEEL

Khaleel Ahmed was the pick of the India bowlers claiming 3/13 off five overs. Rohit was all praise for the young pacer from Rajasthan saying he can be a revelation for India if he gets to play in the World Cup and overseas tour.

“Khaleel is a very promising prospect. When a left arm pacer comes and swings the ball well, any batsman in the world will find it difficult. Khaleel’s bowling is therefore very important for us.

“He is maturing very fast and he understands his bowling and the management also understands where he needs to be going into the World Cup. If he continues to do well, his bowling can be handy in New Zealand and World Cup where the ball swings a lot,” he said.

First Published: Oct 29, 2018 22:43 IST