The Indian head coach Rahul Dravid points out the turning revealed the turning point in Rohit Sharma’s career, saying the cricketer came into the limelight when he got the opportunity to open for India. Rohit opened India’s innings for the first time during the tour of South Africa in January 2011. The right-hander scored 23 runs in the third ODI against the Proteas. He started regularly opening the innings during the home series against England in 2013.

During the media interaction ahead of the Indore ODI against New Zealand, Rahul Dravid said, “He has been a phenomenal cricketer for India. I remember seeing him for the first time when he was 17 or 18, just came out of Under 19s, you could see him looking slightly different and he has gone on to prove that. You look at a lot of kids, who look different at 19 but not all of them go on to actually achieve their potential.”

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He further added, “What Rohit has done over the last 15 years I think now has actually achieved his potential and really been a great servant of Indian cricket and done really well, Maybe for him in some ways, the turning point was when he got the opportunity to finally open and really his hallmark has been his performances in ICC tournaments but also his ability that to score big runs, someone who has got three double hundreds in ODIs is absolutely phenomenal achievement.”

Rohit Sharma has registered three double ODI hundreds and so far, he has played as many as 240 ODIs since making his debut in June 2007. The right-hander has amassed 9681 runs, including 29 centuries and 48 fifties, at a strike rate of 89.66. Following the sacking of Virat Kohli as ODI captain of India, the BCCI handed the responsibility to Rohit.

The Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma, who witnessed a dip in his batting form, has been scoring runs consistently. He scored 83, 17, 42, 34, and 51 in his last five outings in ODIs at home.

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Coming in his support, Rahul Dravid said, “He is someone who has got that kind of game. You can’t think of a kind of bowling to bowl to him. When he is playing well, you can’t bowl fast and short to him, he takes down spinners, he plays swing well. He has got a really good complete game. He has been a fantastic player for India, he has been batting really well for us. Even in last few games, it was terrific to watch him playing. Great to have him leading the side at the moment.”