On this day in 2013, Indian opener Rohit Sharma registered his first ODI double century against Australia in Bangalore. It was Rohit’s first double hundred soon after he started opening the batting in the Champions Trophy that year. He is the only player to have scored three double centuries in ODIs.
Watch India vs Australia 7th ODI Highlights
Sharma earned player of the series for his brilliant batting performance to contributed 491-runs including one double-century and a century with an average of 122.75 in the seven-match ODI series.
Rohit Sharma recalls his first double century moment
Rohit had recently spoken about the innings in an Instagram Live chat with R Ashwin. He had said it was former India teammate Yuvraj Singh who told him to make the most of the opportunity as an opener and go for a big one.
“I remember Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) telling me, this is a great opportunity for you. You have just started to open the batting. He told me this is a good opportunity for you to make a big score. I was getting 40s, 50s, 60s. That was a good talk we had before the game,” he said.
“When I went back inside, someone was telling me, if you would have batted for another over or so you would have broken Virender Sehwag‘s record,” said Rohit, who went to score 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in 2014 which remains the highest individual score.
“The expectation in the dressing room is really high. There were three or four guys who wanted me to score 10 or 15 more runs, Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) was one of them and maybe Shikhar Dhawan too.”
Rohit’s first 50 came off 71 balls, the next 50 off 43 and the last 109 runs off just 44.
“It is a wonderful feeling,” he had said after the knock. “When I went out to bat, I never knew I would get 200. But scoring runs on this ground is easy. I only wanted to carry on from where I left in the last game.
“As you play, records will come. I only want my team to win. That is more important. It’s coming off really well for me since the Champions Trophy and I just want to keep the momentum going,” Rohit said.
