IND vs AUS: Rohit Sharma rolls back the years with old-style approach in Adelaide

Rohit Sharma rolls back the years with old-style approach in Adelaide (BCCI Photo)

It tells you something about the kind of ODI batsman Rohit Sharma has been over the past 18 years that as many as 45 of his 91 scores over 50 have come at a strike-rate better than 100. Though often a cautious starter against the new ball, the Rohit template was then to consolidate and finish with a flourish.

But in the last five years, especially after he took over the ODI captaincy from Virat Kohli, even that approach changed. The new avatar went hell for leather from ball one, a method that paid notable dividends in the 2023 World Cup, when Rohit’s turbo-charged starts were so integral to India’s unbeaten run to the final. Even that eventually heartbreaking game might have turned out very differently if Travis Head hadn’t taken an unbelievable running catch off Glenn Maxwell’s bowling after Rohit had raced to 47 from just 30 balls.

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During that glittering captaincy tenure (not as stand-in), Rohit went past 50 on 18 occasions. Only twice was the strike-rate below 100. He made 87 off 101 balls against England on a sticky Lucknow pitch during the 2023 World Cup, and then reeled off 76 off 83 in the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand earlier this year. On the second occasion, he knew that India needed a little over five an over to win, and there was no need to blaze away every ball.

This 97-ball effort in Adelaide, after a 16-ball 8 in Perth, was his slowest half-century since March 2019, when he struggled to 56 off 89 balls against Australia at the Feroz Shah Kotla (now Arun Jaitley Stadium) in New Delhi. With the drop-in pitch at the Adelaide Oval offering plenty of movement early on, Rohit was all at sea in the early exchanges. Josh Hazlewood started with consecutive maiden overs, and Rohit’s tardy progress to 8 off 28 balls may have contributed to the rash shot that Shubman Gill – deprived of the strike – played to try and get the scoreboard moving.

Never seen Rohit sharma got beaten or struggled so much but this half century should give him much needed confidence.

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— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) October 23, 2025

But once Virat Kohli also departed, after a four-ball duck, Rohit gradually came into his own. The swipes at thin air soon become full-blooded connections that sent the ball to the rope or beyond. A leading edge through third man off the previously unhittable Hazlewood gave him some momentum and there was then a glorious loft over mid-off.

Two sixes in an over off Mitchell Owen got the innings back on track, and he was equally decisive when Adam Zampa came on. Matthew Short and Cooper Connolly too got the Rohit treatment before Starc returned to nip thoughts of a century in the bud.

But after eating up balls in the early stages, Rohit was the senior partner in 118-run partnership (136 balls) with Shreyas Iyer that transformed India’s innings. His contribution was 65 from just 69 balls. Not the Hitman of recent seasons, but more a throwback to the old template of settling in and cutting loose.