Shastri suggests Rohit to play the aggressor at No 6
Rohit Sharma’s decision to bat in the middle order in the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests, has failed to yield the desired results for the Indian team in the Border-Gavaskar series so far.
Although he missed out on a well-deserved half-century, Rohit Sharma became the fourth Indian opener ever to reach 7000 ODI runs. He achieved the milestone during the ongoing second India-Australia at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot.
He in fact became the fastest to the landmark in world cricket leaving behind Hashim Amla and Sachin Tendulkar. While Rohit took 137 innings to reach the milestone, Amla had achieved the same in 147 innings. Tendulkar, on the other hand, had completed 7,000 ODI runs as an opener in 160 innings.
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Prior to Rohit, the other three Indian openers to reach the milestone were Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag.
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The Mumbaikar was looking in good touch until he missed an Adam Zampa delivery and was adjudged out leg before wicket post scoring 42 runs off 44 balls.
Sharma was one hit away from equalling yet another record as he is currently just four runs short of reaching 9000 runs in ODIs.
Australia invited India to have a bat first
After winning the series opener played at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, the visitors are already 1-0 up in the series.
Another win would imply they win the second back to back series in India after winning the previous series 3-2 in March 2019.
Australia won the toss in the second ODI and invited India to bat first which surprised a section of the cricket experts since no team batting second has won a contest at the venue of the second ODI- Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot.
India made a couple of changes to their lineup. While Rishabh Pant was ruled out with a concussion, Shardul Thakur was also dropped from the XI. Manish Pandey and Navdeep Saini find their names in the Playing 11 and KL Rahul will have to don the wicketkeeping gloves.
On the other hand, Australia has fielded an unchanged playing 11 and are looking to settle the series with one match to spare.
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