“Gold has to go through fire to become pure” - Former batter hails Rohit Sharma’s intense 73-run knock in AUS vs IND 2025 2nd ODI

Former cricketer Aakash Chopra praised veteran opener Rohit Sharma for his 73-run knock in the second ODI of the three-match series against Australia. The match was played at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday, October 23.

Opening the batting, Rohit struggled early, scoring just 24 runs off his first 50 balls. However, once he settled in, he looked much more comfortable, reaching his 59th ODI fifty and eventually top-scoring with 73 runs off 97 balls, including seven fours and two sixes, as India posted 264/9 in 50 overs. Reacting to Rohit’s innings, Chopra said on his YouTube channel:

“What a wonderful thing Rohit Sharma taught us: beauty lies in painting, not in batting. Batting doesn’t have to be beautiful; it has to be effective. Many times, batting becomes very difficult. You struggle, you suffer, and you have to endure for a long time. Just like gold has to go through fire to become pure, a batter must go through the same test to emerge refined. This innings of Rohit Sharma was one such test.”

“At the beginning, it was a tough phase and there were ugly runs that you had to grind out. You stand there getting beaten, the ball hitting your body, but you refuse to give up, saying that you are not going to surrender and not walking away from this battle. That’s what we saw in this innings from Rohit Sharma,” he added.

The 48-year-old noted that although the innings wasn’t fluent, it was an important one for Rohit, saying:

“It wasn’t one of his fluent knocks, but eventually he faced those short balls with determination, and smashed two sixes, before finally getting out to a short ball. In my opinion, it was a very important innings for Rohit Sharma because now the setup is stable. The first innings went poorly, and if the second had gone the same way, there would have been tremendous pressure in Sydney.”

Meanwhile, India couldn’t defend 265 as Australia won by two wickets, giving them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

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“Both of them did look rusty” - Aakash Chopra on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli

In the same video, Aakash Chopra also noted that the veteran duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli looked rusty, with the former managing to score runs while the latter hasn’t. He remarked:

“I think both Rohit and Virat would also be feeling that no matter who you are or how big your name is, if you haven’t been playing competitive cricket continuously, you tend to look a bit rusty, and both of them did look rusty. There’s no doubt about it. Of course, Rohit scored runs, while Virat couldn’t.”

The duo will be back in action for the final game of the series on Saturday, October 25, in Sydney.