The way he is swinging the ball makes him a rare talent: Rohit Sharma on Mohammed Siraj

India finished their series against Sri Lanka on a high, inflicting the biggest-ever victory by runs in an ODI as they racked up a 317-run win on Sunday. Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli were absolutely phenomenal as they hammered centuries while Rohit Sharma got off to a grand start but couldn’t convert it.

After being at the receiving end of heavy flak since 2022, Rohit has finally started finding his stride and the Asian champions were blown away to bits and pieces as the Indian skipper dictated the tempo firmly at the top of the innings and interspersed his innings uniformly, punishing the loose balls while also providing the due time to Shubman Gill to settle down so that he could do the heavy lifting later in the innings.

Talking in the post-match conference, Rohit opened up on India’s outing against Sri Lanka where the Men in Blue were pretty phenomenal. He highlighted the plus points and what made India almost untenable in the series finale at the Greenfield Stadium.

Rohit said, “I thought it was a great series for us. We bowled pretty well, got wickets, breakthroughs when we needed. Batters throughout the series piling up those runs was good to watch. [When was the last time a fast bowler in India had four slips and a gully?] Don't remember that.”

Talking about Siraj, he added, “Was good to see how Siraj was bowling and deserved the slips. The way he is swinging the ball, he is a rare talent. And in the last couple of years, we have seen him go from strength to strength. We tried all sorts of things to help him get five but it couldn't. But the confidence is there and we can see in the way he is running. He is working on a few tricks.”

India’s next challenge will be against the Kiwis beginning with a 3-match ODI series. Rohit concluded by talking about the upcoming series, stating, “Not given too much thought about [NZ]. We'll get there and see and there will be a change in combination from what we saw today. We want to work like we did in this series to get the result we want."