Rohit Sharma wins Impact player of the series award (Screengrab) India’s strength and conditioning coach Adrian Le Roux has showered praise on former India captain Rohit Sharma for his brilliant batting performances in the recently concluded three-match ODI series against Australia.Rohit struck an unbeaten 121 to guide India to a nine-wicket win over Australia, helping the visitors avoid a whitewash. The hosts won the series 2-1.

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“It’s a great honour for me to do this. It’s my first ODI series watching you guys operate and seeing a full dressing room,” Adrian said before handing over the award to Rohit.“This award is for the Impact Player of the Series — someone really special. I think we all agree, a leader of men, an experienced player, you showed that here tonight. The Impact Player of the Series is Rohit,” he added.Rohit was adjudged Player of the Match and Player of the Series against the Aussies, despite returning to competitive cricket for the first time since the IPL in May.Click here to watch Gautam Gambhir’s fiery dressing room speech.“It was important to utilise that time because, like I said, I never had so much time before, and I prepared well back home. There are differences between conditions here and back home, but I’ve played here many times. It was just about getting into rhythm.“I give a lot of credit to the way I prepared before coming here, giving time to myself. That was very important because sometimes you need to understand there’s more to life than what you do professionally. I had time in hand and I utilised it well,” he added.Rohit cherished his match-winning partnership with long-time teammate Virat Kohli.“I enjoy playing in Australia. Today was another perfect day to get a big one and take the team through. Batting was challenging early on with two new balls and the pitch misbehaving a bit, but we knew it would get easier once the shine wore off.

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“It was a fantastic partnership with Virat after a long time. I think we hadn’t had a 100-run stand in quite a while. From a team’s perspective, it was crucial considering our position after Shubman got out early and Shreyas was injured.“We enjoyed every moment out there. There was constant chatter between us — we’ve played so much cricket together that we understand each other really well. With so much experience between us, we used it wisely,” Rohit said.