Legendary batter Rohit Sharma has picked two former Australian World Cup winners Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds as his favourite non-Indian batting partners in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Rohit played alongside Gilchrist and Symonds during their stint with Deccan Chargers in the IPL from 2008 to 2010. Both players were part of Australia's ‘golden generation’ which won back-to-back World Cups in 2003 and 2007.
Symonds was killed in a car crash in Queensland in May 2022. Meanwhile, Gilchrist announced his retirement from cricket in 2008 but he regularly appears on the Club Prairie Fire podcast alongside former England skipper Michael Vaughan.
In a special episode of ‘Breakfast with Champions’, Rohit had a conversation with Gaurav Kapur and Ed Sheeran and they asked Rohit about non-Indian players he loved batting with.
"I loved batting with Adam Gilchrist. I loved every bit of it. And, to be honest, Andrew Symonds as well. I got to learn a lot as a young rookie cricketer. At that point, I was 20 years old, and to learn from these greats was superb," Rohit replied.
Rohit Sharma also opened up on his retirement plans post the T20 World Cup on April 12 during the chat on 'Breakfast With Champions' show.
"I haven't really thought about retirement. But, I don't know where life takes you. I am still playing well at this point in time - so I am thinking I am going to continue for a few more years and then, I don't know. I really want to win the World Cup and there is a WTC (World Test Championship) final in 2025, hopefully, India makes it," Rohit said.
36-year-old Rohit also shared about India’s heartbreaking loss in the ODI World final last year at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
"We were all supposed to have one bad day (in the tournament) and that (ODI World Cup 2023 final) I guess that was our bad day. Don't think we played bad cricket in that final, certain things didn't go our way. But Australia were slightly better than us," Rohit, who had himself got the team off to a good start with his brisk 47 off 31, said.
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