Rohit Sharma has picked his two current favourite batsmen in world cricket and surprisingly it’s not Virat Kohli. The ‘Hitman’ was asked to pick two batsmen he enjoys watching during a live Q&A session with fans on Instagram and he quite shockingly picked two overseas batsmen while avoiding his Indian counterparts. With cricket events suspended across the country and the lockdown also extended till June 30 due to the number of increasing cases, most cricketers and sports personalities have been keeping themselves busy by engaging with fans on social media as well doing live Q&A sessions with fellow cricketers. ‘Hope You Played Little Longer’: Rohit Sharma Posts Heartfelt Message for Yuvraj Singh as Indian All-Rounder Completes One Year of Retirement.

In one such Q&A session on Instagram, Rohit was asked about batsmen from the current generation he enjoys watching. “Aisa kon sa cricketer hai Jiski batting dekhne mein aapko maja Aata Hain (Which is the cricketer whose batting you enjoy watching),” a fan asked Sharma in the live session. To this Rohit replied that he loved watching “Steve Smith and Jason Roy.” Rohit Sharma Shares Incredible Six-Hitting Montage, Says ‘Miss Doing This’ (Watch Video).

Instagram Shot From Rohit Sharma's Q&A Session (Photo Credits: Instagram/@RohitSharma45)

Steve Smith is the top-ranked Test batsman while Jason Roy is a destructive opening batsman for England and was instrumental in their 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup win. While only Rohit can say why he didn’t pick the likes of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, who are two of the best batsman in the current circuit, his choices weren’t bad either.

Smith has scored 7227 runs in 73 Test matches and has already smashed 26 hundreds. He also averages 62.8 in Test matches and was the Player of the Series in last year’s Ashes with Australia successfully defending the title in England for the first time since 2001. Roy, on the other, has been instrumental to England’s success in the limited-overs cricket. He has the highest score of 180 in ODIs and has scored 3434 runs in 87 ODI matches.

Meanwhile, under normal circumstances, all three players would have represented their teams in the IPL this season. But the T20 tournament was suspended due to the pandemic and the lockdown. Smith is the captain of Rajasthan Royals in the IPL while Sharma captain Mumbai Indians and has led them to four IPL titles in seven seasons. Roy was brought by the Delhi capitals at the 2020 IPL Players’ Auctions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 14, 2020 12:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).