"Not looking to blast the ball in first 10 overs" - Indian legend spots big change in Rohit Sharma's ODI approach amid AUS vs IND 2025 series

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar reckons that Rohit Sharma seems to have shunned his ultra-aggressive avatar in ODIs and is looking to play big knocks now. Gavaskar made the interesting comment while sharing his thoughts on the Hitman's resolute half-century in the second ODI against Australia in Adelaide.

India went down to Australia by two wickets in the second ODI in Adelaide on Thursday, October 23. Sent into bat, they recovered from a poor start to post 264-9 on the board. Australia, however, chased down the score in 46.2 overs.

Although India lost the game, and with it the series, Rohit scored a hard-fought 73 off 97 balls, hitting seven fours and two sixes. The veteran batter struggled for runs in the first half of his innings, but batted patiently and overcame the tough phase. Analyzing Rohit's determined knock in Adelaide, Gavaskar told India Today:

"Bringing all the experience into play. They had lost Shubman Gill and Kohli early, so it was required of Rohit Sharma to settle down a little bit. When we played the World Cup or even the Champions Trophy, he was looking to get the team off to a vertical take-off start. But, every batter realizes that even in an ODI, the minimum score you should be looking to get is a 100. "Rohit Sharma is now not looking to blast the ball in the first 10 overs and getting a quick 40-45 in 20-25 deliveries. Young SG (Shubman Gill) was pleased with what he did, so how can old SG be displeased?," the former India opener added.

Rohit's knock ended when he pulled a poor delivery from Mitchell Starc straight to the fielder positioned at fine leg. In the first ODI in Perth, the right-handed batter was caught in the slip cordon off Josh Hazlewood's bowling.

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"It's really big" - Gavaskar on the importance of Adelaide knock for Rohit

Rohit has been under the scanner ever since he was replaced as ODI captain by Gill. There have been numerous question marks over his availability for the 2027 World Cup. Gavaskar admitted that the Adelaide innings would give the seasoned batter some confidence. He explained:

"It does wonders to his confidence. Like Kohli, he hasn't played any international cricket for 4-5 months. It's really big that against Australia, on a pitch that is not really easy to bat on, where there was a little more bounce, he got a 70-plus. That is definitely something that will raise you confidence."

Rohit has played 275 ODIs in which he has amassed 11,249 runs at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 92.62, with 32 hundreds and 59 half-centuries. During the knock on Thursday, he also became India's third-leading ODI run-getter.

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Edited by Renin Wilben Albert