On Monday, India Opener batsman and vice-captain Rohit Sharma joined hands with spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for an Instagram Live session. During the conversation, Rohit Sharma recalled his double century that he scored against Australia in Bangalore. He also revealed the important advice MS Dhoni gave him during that squash buckling innings.
In the live session, Indian ‘Hitman’ revealed that he never had anything in his mind of scoring a double century. The 33-year-old said that at that time he just wanted to bat and score runs for his team.
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“I never thought I would score a double hundred. I just wanted to bat.. It rained a bit and them along with Shikhar, remained not out till the break. Soon Shikhar got out and Virat was run out as well. So I took over the responsibility,” Rohit Sharma said.
Rohit recalls his partnership with MS Dhoni was a vital one during the game. He spoke about how MSD advised him to play till the end. MS Dhoni told Rohit Sharma to avoid taking risks and play till the last over of the innings.
“Suresh and I also shared a good partnership but lost Yuvi early. I batted with MS Dhoni still the 48th over. During the partnership, he kept on talking and discussing things with me. He said, ‘You are the set batsman and we want you to bat till the 50th over and I will be the one who takes chances’,” Rohit mentioned.
He continued, “He was telling me ‘you’re the set batsman and I want you to bat till the 48th, 49th of 50th over, because you can hit any bowler anywhere you want. So let me take chances, you just take a backseat, take singles, knock the ball in the gaps, and find the odd boundary if you can’.”
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Rohit added, “And I just thought ‘no yaar, I’m seeing the ball really well and I might as well put pressure on the bowlers right here, right now’. Then I decided to just go after the bowlers. I remember hitting Xavier Doherty for four sixes in an over.”
