Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 8 (ANI): Indian batter and former ODI skipper Rohit Sharma expressed his excitement for the tour to Australia and how much he loves playing against the current 50-over world champions.

Rohit was speaking during the CEAT Cricket Ratings Awards in Mumbai, where he received a memento for winning the ICC Champions Trophy as a captain.

Speaking ahead of the Australian tour, which starts on October 19 with three ODIs, the only format the 'Hitman' currently plays, Rohit said, 'I love that team, I love playing with them.'

The 'Hitman' is an undisputed ODI all-time great, with 11,168 runs in 273 matches and 265 innings at an average of 48.76 and a strike rate of 92.80, with 32 centuries and 58 fifties. He is India's fourth-highest ODI run-getter.

He has a fine ODI record in Australia, with 1,328 runs in 30 matches and innings at an average of 53.12 and a strike rate of over 90, peeling off five centuries and four fifties in the Aussie land with the best score of 171*.

However this time, there will be be something new for him in store as instead of captaining, he will be playing under the captaincy of his batting partner, a young Shubman Gill, who has produced some promising results as a captain in Test cricket so far, securing a well-fought 2-2 draw against England away from home and currently leading a two-match series against West Indies at home by 1-0. It would be interesting to see how Rohit, free from the captaincy armband, approaches his batting.

Speaking about leading his side to the T20 World Cup title win in 2024. The ICC Champions Trophy, Rohit said, was a turning point for his team, which, after failing to get over the line, particularly following their 10-wicket loss to England in the T20 World Cup 2022 at Adelaide, decided to do something different. Everyone brought into that thought to make things easy for him and coach Rahul Dravid.

'It is not about one year of work or two years of work. We had come so close to winning that trophy many times (during the 2014 T20 World Cup finals against Sri Lanka and the 2016 T20 WC semis versus West Indies), but we could not quite get over the line. That is where everyone decided that we needed to do something different. One or two players cannot do it. You need everyone to buy into that thought. That was really good from the team, and that is something that helped me and Rahul Dravid, when we were planning for the T20 World Cup and then on to the Champions Trophy,' he added.

After the loss against England at Adelaide, the team changed its approach to a more fearless one, especially during the powerplay. During the ODI World Cup, the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill put personal milestone chase aside, firing right from the ball one, with a Virat Kohli-sized safety net there to stabilise things the moment they went wrong. It was the fireworks from Rohit and Gill which served as a stage on which the rest of the team could take their time, tire out bowlers with masterful strike rotation and attacking and perform their record-shattering batting exploits.

Despite that, all it took was some tactical greatness of skipper Pat Cummins and a counter-attacking ton by Travis Head to end India's 10-match win streak, take the World Cup gold in Ahmedabad and leave the Team India teary-eyed and heartbroken. However, the learning from the loss was such that India won both the T20 WC and CT 2025 undefeated.

Since first wearing the ODI captaincy armband in 2017, Rohit led India in 56 ODIs, winning a stunning 42, losing just 12, one ending in a no-result, while one ended in a tie. His win percentage of 75 per cent makes him one of the world's best white-ball leaders statistically.

Under Rohit, India secured the 2018 and 2023 ODI Asia Cup, the runners-up position in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup at home and the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai this year. His captaincy in ICC tournaments, which saw Team India lose just one out of 23 games across three tournaments and capture two titles, is considered as one of the greatest white-ball captaincy runs ever. (ANI)