Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 25 : After Rohit Sharma's explosive knock and India's win over Australia in the third ODI, the batter's childhood coach, Dinesh Lad, on Saturday expressed his happiness and said that the veteran batter will retire after playing the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Rohit smashed his 50th international ton at Sydney during the third ODI and was the top scorer during the recently-concluded ODI series against Australia.
During the chase of 237, his power-packed 121* and partnership with long-time teammate Virat Kohli enthralled fans who had packed the entire stadium to catch them for what could be their last match on Australian soil.
"The way Rohit batted today and how he contributed to India's win --it felt great to watch today's match. He will play the 2027 ODI World Cup and retire after that," Dinesh Lad told ANI.
On Virat, who made a rock-solid 74* after two successive ducks at Perth and Adelaide, he said that "there are misunderstandings about Virat everyday.
"He is someone who can thrive anytime and anywhere. The way he played today, it feels good. Sachin had said in a function way back that Rohit and Virat would be the players who would break his records. Both getting closer to his records feels really good," he added.
Coming to the match, Australia won the toss and opted to bat first. A 61-run stand between skipper Mitchell Marsh (41 in 50 balls, with five fours and a six) and Travis Head (29 in 25 balls, with six fours) started off things for Australia.
Matt Short contributed a knock of 30 in 41 balls, with two fours, and a 59-run stand between Matt Renshaw (56 in 58 balls, with two fours) and Alex Carey (24 in 37 balls, with a four) took the Aussies to 183/3. But from there, Aussies collapsed to 236 all out in 46.4 overs, with Harshit Rana (4/39 in 8.4 overs), Washington Sundar (2/44) being the pick of the bowlers and Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav getting one each.
In the 237 run-chase, India was off to a solid start with a 69-run opening stand between Shubman Gill (24 in 26 balls, with two fours and a six). From there, something happened that fans had waited for all series, as Rohit Sharma (121* in 125 balls, with 13 fours and three sixes) and Virat Kohli (74* in 81 balls, with seven fours) put on an unbeaten 168-run partnership and achieved several milestones, winning the match with nine wickets still in hand.
Rohit won the 'Player of the Match' award and the 'Player of the Series' award as well for top-scoring in the series with 202 runs, including a century and a fifty each.