MUMBAI: Gurunath Sharma, father of Indian opener Rohit Sharma, on Tuesday expressed his happiness after his son smashed a brilliant century to help his side set a massive target of 310 against Australia in the opening ODI of the five-match series at the WACA cricket ground in Perth.
The 28-year-old batsman gave India a perfect start to their Australian tour as he smashed 13 boundaries and seven sixes in his unbeaten knock of 171.
“He batted extremely well today. There was a control in his batting. The way he started batting, it felt that he will play good and he displayed good cricket,” Gurunath told ANI here.
It was Rohit’s first tour after marriage and his father believes that his wife proved to be lucky for him.
Gurunath said that although it was difficult to play in the Australian conditions, Rohit displayed some really good cricket.
“I hope he will continue to play like this in the remaining matches. It is really difficult to play in Australia due to bouncy pitches, but he played well. I am extremely happy,” Rohit’s father said.
Earlier, opting to bat first, India scored 309-3, thanks to Rohit for his brilliant century and Virat Kohli, who fell nine short of scoring a hundred.
Rohit and Kohli (91) shared a partnership of 207-run for the second wicket, after losing opener Shikhar Dhwan for cheaply nine runs.
At the time of reporting, Australia had scored 120-2 in 22.3 overs.