India’s white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma and premier off-spinner R Aswhin were among four players from the country to have featured in the Cricket Australia (CA) XI of the year.
Besides Rohit and Ashwin, the other two Indians in the team were swashbuckling keeper-batter Rishabh Pant and left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
Rohit has been picked as an opener alongside Sri Lankan Dimuth Karunaratne, followed by Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne at number three. He is followed by England Test captain Joe Root, Pakistan’s Fawad Alam and Pant in the batting order.
Having dominated white-ball cricket and his home conditions for years, Rohit conquered his final frontier this year by showing he can score big Test runs outside of Asia.
And a strong 2021 that saw him finish behind only Root for most runs could have been even better if the classy right-hander had translated multiple strong starts into big hundreds.
Rohit reached 20 or more in 14 of his 19 completed innings but posted two centuries – 161 in a total of 329 to set up a win in Chennai and a patient 127 at The Oval, his maiden Test hundred away from home.