Rohit Sharma opens up about how he paces his ODI innings

What's the story?

Rohit Sharma, who scored his third ODI double-century a few weeks ago against Sri Lanka, opened up about the way he paces his innings.

Speaking to The Times of India, he revealed his secret to success.

"Firstly, time has been a great teacher. It's over the years that I have tried to understand the finer nuances of batting. There's a pattern to my batting, and it's a trend that I think I managed to figure out to a large extent. For instance, the first thing I did was do away with any sort of negative thinking, or allowing any kind of pressure to build on me. It never helps. Like I said, I follow a certain template at the crease. That's a multi-layered one. You got to have an instinctive approach, depending on the opposition, the conditions etc," said Rohit

Then, there are some basics too. I like to break my innings into three parts inside my mind. I take my time in the first 10 overs, acquire a sense of the occasion. From over number 11, I begin to realise if I'm ready to free my arms a bit and between then and over number 30, I like to build something. Multiple factors play a role in these stages and if I've moved smoothly up to over number 35, then that's where I'd call myself dangerous for the opposition. This doesn't happen every time. But at least inside my mind, this is how I approach an ODI innings," he concluded.

In case you didn't know...

Rohit, who captained the Men in Blue against Sri Lanka in a three-match ODI series, scored a scintillating double-century in the 2nd ODI held in Mohali.

His knock propelled India to 392 in 50 overs. Sri Lanka eventually managed to score only 251, thus losing the match by 141 runs.

The details:

Whenever Rohit scored a double-century in ODIs, he always paced his innings in such a way that the first 100 hundred runs came at a strike-rate of slightly less than 100. However, after scoring a century, he would go berserk and score the next 100 runs at a phenomenal strike-rate.

As India's tour to South Africa is all set to begin on January 5, Rohit will look to continue his fine run of form and help India achieve their first series victory in South Africa.

What's next?

The first Test between India and South Africa will take place in Cape Town from January 5-9.

Author's take:

Rohit has been in sensational form over the past year or so. However, he was quite poor on the swinging pitches in South Africa back when India toured them in 2013

It will be extremely interesting to see whether he will be able to perform well against the likes of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, and Kagiso Rabada.