World Cup 2019: Rohit Sharma joins Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards in THIS milestone against Australia

Indian opener Rohit Sharma became the backbone of the Indian side against South Africa with his unbeaten 122 in the opener at Southampton.

The Men in Blue will try to keep the winning momentum on against the defending champions Australia on Sunday.

However, the highlight of the match is that of Rohit joining the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards and Desmond Haynes in an elite list of cricketers.

The Hitman became the 4th player to aggregate 2000 runs in ODIs against Australia.

Rohit Sharma becomes the fourth batsman in world cricket to hit 2,000 ODI runs against Australia #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/c6I5iUpuy1

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 9, 2019

Before the match he was sitting on 1980 against the Aussies, having scored runs at an average of 61.87. In the process, he has registered seven hundreds and seven fifties to his name.

Rohit presently has played 37 innings vs Australia and hence would become the fastest among all to reach the landmark. The other three cricketers to have achieved the feat in more innings are: 

• 37  ROHIT SHARMA v Aus
• 40  Sachin Tendulkar v Aus
• 44  Viv Richards v Aus
• 44  Virat Kohli v SL
• 45  MS Dhoni v SL

Rohit sits third in terms of most number of ODI centuries against the Aussies. Rohit (7) presently trails Sachin Tendulkar (9) and Virat Kohli (8) in the list.

Also, Rohit - Shikhar pair is now the most successful opening pair against Australia in the ODIs, going past West Indies pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes' tally of 1152 runs - in seven fewer innings!

After Australia, India will travel to Trent Bridge Cricket Ground in England to play against New Zeland on Thursday (13 June).