India would be happy with their preparation heading into the ICC Men's World Cup 2023. Irrespective of the result of their ongoing third and final ODI against Australia in their last bilateral series before the marquee event, India will have ticked more boxes than not in the build up to the competition. While Rohit Sharma opted to rest for the first two matches of the three-match series, he is back in some style.
Even though Austalia won the toss and posted 352/7 in their 50 overs, with each of their top four batters- David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne scoring half-centuries, Rohit put on a stroke making masterclass in India's run-chase. Coming out to open with Washington Sundar, the Indian opener smashed sixes for fun, mostly pulling it out of the park in Rajkot while also timing a few on the off side. He got to his half-century off 31 deliveries.
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During his innings in which he has smashed five sixes already, he became the fastest batter in the world to reach 550 sixes in international cricket. Even though there is only just one batter to have crossed that mark- the one and only Chris Gayle who has a total of 553 sixes- another record which is under threat from Rohit, the West Indian had taken 548 innings to smash 550 sixes. Rohit, however, has reached there in 548 innings.
Talking about India's efforts with the ball, Jasprit Bumrah finished with figures of 3/81. Kuldeep Yadav scalped 2 wickets for 48 runs off his six overs. Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj were the other wicket-takers for the Men in Blue in this fixture with figures of 1 for 45 and 1 for 48 respectively.
India will begin their World Cup campaign against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Ocotober 8. India's last ICC title came in 2013 when they beat England in the ICC Champions Trophy final.