Please Rohit not against Australia, do it versus Pakistan, West Indies: Brett Lee

That it took Rohit Sharma two centuries on his first match as a Test opener, which was also his return to Test cricket to beat his hundred-tally in T20Is (4) and he still has two more double centuries in ODIs – three in ODIs and one in Tests - than in Test cricket, speaks volumes of his prowess as a white-ball cricketer. This by no means indicates that he cannot do the same in Test cricket. In fact, the moment he started opening in red-ball cricket, he scored three centuries in his 5 Tests along with a double ton against South Africa. But his record in white-ball cricket is something that strikes fear among his opponents.

Above all, Rohit's knack of making double hundreds in ODIs look just another day in the office has what has got everyone rolling their eyes. Sachin Tendulkar may have been the first man to score an ODI double hundred and Virender Sehwag the second but it is Rohit who's name comes first when we talk about ODI double tons, simple because of number of times he has breached the mark. Former Australia pacer Brett Lee, therefore, had a special request for the India opener: Please don't score any more double hundreds against Australia.

"He'll score a lot of double hundreds hopefully. But not many more against Australia, please... Any other country, Pakistan, West Indies perfect but not against Australia," Lee said in Star Sports show 'Cricket Connected'.

Rohit interestingly had scored his first double hundred in international cricket against Australia in Bangalore in 2013. The India opener had smashed 209 to become the third Indian to notch up a double ton in ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.

A year later, Rohit took ODI batting to a different level altogether when he scored 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata in 2014. To put his knock into perspective, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 251, 13 runs short of Rohit's score.

The India opener scored his third double century in 2017 at PCAA Stadium in Mohali and Sri Lanka were once again at the receiving end.

Remembering his first impression of Rohit when he was on his maiden tour to Australia in 2007, Lee said the sound of Rohit's bat was different from anybody else's.

"He's got plenty of years, a lot of cricket left in him. The first impression I got of Rohit Sharma when he came on to the scene was that he was flamboyant. He was very aggressive the way he used to bat but it was the sound of the bat, it's the first thing that I could think of when I watched him bat. You know when people make that sound when they hit the ball from the centre of the bat, it's a different sound," recalled Lee.

Rohit, who averages close to 50 in ODIs and has 29 hundreds, broke the World Cup record for scoring most hundreds in a single edition when he notched up five centuries in 2019 ODI World Cup in 2019.