The Australians are in town again for an ODI series, and Rohit Sharma, more than anyone else, will be licking his lips in anticipation. In general, his ODI form over the last few seasons has been exceptional - he has a 50-plus average in each calendar year since 2013, when he became a permanent fixture at the top of the order - but against Australia, he has elevated his batting to another level altogether: in 13 ODI innings against them since the start of 2013, he has scored five centuries and averaged 110.40 at a strike rate of 102.88. He missed a sixth hundred by a run when he was dismissed for 99 in Sydney in 2016.
After scoring a mere 193 runs in his first ten ODI innings against Australia, Rohit has gone into overdrive, scoring almost six times that tally in his next 13. It hasn't mattered much whether he has played them home or away either: in seven innings against them in Australia, he has scored 613 runs, including three hundreds; at home, he has 491 in six, with two hundreds, including a double. In the first ten of those 13 innings, his scores read thus: 42, 141 not out, 11, 9 not out, 79, 209, 138, 34, 171 not out, and 124 - 958 runs, at an average of nearly 137. That aggregate is the highest by any batsman against a single opposition in ten successive innings, going past Sachin Tendulkar's 778, also against Australia, between 1996 and 1998.
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