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Rohit Sharma scores a half century against Sri Lanka in 2008 at Canberra. (Screengrab: YouTube)
Rohit Sharma will have the spotlight firmly on him when he travels to Australia later this week to take part in a 3-match ODI series. With the 2027 World Cup firmly in his sights, the former India captain will look to make a mark against familiar foes in order to keep himself in the reckoning for the ODI extravaganza, almost 2 years away.
Rohit, who was replaced by Shubman Gill as the new ODI skipper earlier this month as the Australia squads were announced, last played a 50-over match against New Zealand in the final of the Champions Trophy which India won. Since then, this Australia series will be the first time that Rohit as well as the Men in Blue take to the field in ODIs.
Rohit has also retired from Tests and T20Is, playing his last match in the longest format last year in December against Australia in Melbourne while his last shortest format match was the final of the T20 World Cup win against South Africa which was also in 2024.
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Now as we prepare for the Hitman to lace his boots up once again after a while against Australia, here’s a throwback to when Rohit played his first ODI series in Australia which was the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series, also involving Sri Lanka.
How India won the series
The first match was between India and Australia on February 3 2008 at Brisbane which was washed off after India scored 194 runs after rain had shortened the match. Rohit contributed 29 with his bat but the match was ultimately abandoned.
Rohit returned for the match vs Sri Lanka next at Brisbane on February 5 but that match was washed out as well with Rohit contributing 0 getting snapped up by Muttiah Muralitharan in 2 deliveries. He showed glimpses of his form in his next match against Australia on February 10 where chasing 159, his unbeaten 39 helped India over the line with 5 wickets to spare.
Rohit would burst into life in the next match against Sri Lanka on February 12 when after Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag fell early, Rohit would build important partnerships with Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, scoring an unbeaten 70 runs in the process as India posted 195. But ultimately weather played spoilsport and India lost by 8 wickets due to the Duckworth-Lewis method.
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He wouldn’t have the best of times in the next three matches where India faced Australia and Sri Lanka 2 more times each. Here, he would score 1 and 1 against Australia on February 17 and 24 and bring up just 24 and 3 vs Sri Lanka in February 19 and 26 respectively.
The next match where India played was the first of the Best of 3 finals in Sydney where Rohit showed his class once more, slamming 66 runs in a 239-run chase and India won thanks to that innings as well as Tendulkar’s 117. Rohit and Tendulkar also shared a 123-run partnership between them.
India would also win the second match in Brisbane by 9 runs thanks to a score of 258/9 helped by Tendulkar’s 91 but Rohit could only contribute 2 this time around but ultimately ended up with the series win. With India already winning the first 2 matches, the third match wasn’t needed with the Men in Blue winning the tri-series.
Also, before this ODI series, Rohit had a taste of Australian conditions when he played the only T20I vs the hosts on February 1, 2008, contributing 8 runs as Australia defeated India by 9 wickets
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