Rohit Sharma breaks MS Dhoni's massive record

Rohit Sharma broke Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s record of being the oldest Indian cricketer to win the ‘Player of the Series’ Award on Saturday.

At 38 years and 178 days, Rohit won the accolade, beating out MS

Dhoni’s record, when he won the award against Australia in 2019 at the age of 37 years and 194 days.

Rohit smashed 202 runs from his three outings in the ODI series against Australia, averaging 101 at a strike rate of 85.59, with 21 strokes to the boundary ropes and five over it.

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Apart from winning the ‘Player of the Series’, Rohit also bagged the ‘Player of the Match’ after scoring his 50th international century, and Virat Kohli delivered a masterful performance, possibly in their final match in Australia, leading India to a nine-wicket victory in the third ODI on Saturday.

After a commendable effort by Harshit Rana and the bowlers restricted Australia to a modest 236, Rohit (121 not out) and Kohli (74 not out) forged a 168-run partnership in just 170 balls for the second wicket, taking India to 237 for 1 in 38.3 overs.

Although Australia won the three-match series 2-1, Rohit and Kohli thrilled the delighted Sydney crowd with their classic innings, preventing an embarrassing whitewash for the team.

Rohit was all fluency and confident shot-making, while Kohli appeared like a mathematician meticulously solving a complex puzzle.

Rohit reached his half-century in 63 balls, and the subsequent 50 runs came off just 42 balls as he reached his 33rd ODI hundred, adding to his 12 Test hundreds and five T20I hundreds.

“I haven’t played for a long time, I had good prep before coming in here. I was slightly confident in my head about how I would go in this tournament. Although you know, we couldn’t win the series, but we’ll take a lot of positives,” he said at the post-match presentation.

“I never thought for one second that it is going to be easy. I love doing what I do. And I hope I continue to do that,” he added.

(With inputs from Agencies)