Jason Roy picks 'Hitman' Rohit Sharma over David Warner for opening the innings

Jason Roy has said that he would like to open the innings with Rohit Sharma. Both Roy and Rohit are the finest opening batsmen of their respective countries.  While the South African born cricketer opens the innings for England in white-ball cricket, Sharma has been Team India's high-profile opening batsman ever since the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. What makes the 'Hitman' even more special is that he has a record of three double-centuries in the 50-overs format and four tons in T20I cricket. Sharma's score of 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014 at the iconic Eden Gardens remains the highest individual ODI score to date.

Jason Roy picks Rohit Sharma over David Warner

During a recent interview with CricTracker, the 2019 World Cup winner was asked to pick his opening partner among David Warner and Rohit Sharma as Roy had no hesitation in choosing the Indian limited-overs vice-captain.

The year 2019 was indeed the best year for Rohit Sharma on the cricket field as he had first led the Mumbai Indians to their record fourth IPL title. He then had a dream run at World Cup 2019 that succeeded where he had amassed 648 runs in nine matches that included five centuries. He is the only batsman to have scored five tons in a single edition of the World Cup.  Later in the year, the 'Hitman' made his comeback to red-ball cricket in the home Test series against South Africa where he had notched up his maiden double century in the longest format (212). He was also adjudged the Man of the Series for having amassed 529 runs in the three-match series.

Rohit Sharma in IPL 2020 & Team India's future assignments

Meanwhile, Rohit was all set to lead the defending champions and four-time winners Mumbai Indians in the 13th edition of the cash-rich event that was originally scheduled to get underway on March 29 but has been indefinitely suspended due to the ongoing global pandemic. At the same time, Team India's next two away limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe respectively have been called off due to coronavirus fear. 

As per reports, Virat Kohli & Co.'s next international assignment will be against the current top-ranked Test side Australia in their own backyard. The two fierce rivals will be locking horns in a four-match Test series that gets underway on December 3 in Brisbane.

 India had beaten Australia when they had toured Down Under in the 2018-19 season 2-1 in the four-match series to win their maiden Test series on Australian soil.  It remains to be seen whether the Virat Kohli-led side will succeed in retaining the iconic Border-Gavaskar Trophy by getting the better of a full-strength Australian side that features the likes of Steve Smith, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, etc.

READ: Aakash Chopra Feels Rohit Sharma Has The Credentials Of Leading India At The Highest Level

(Image Courtesy: AP)