Rohit Sharma

The selectors also called up left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja after his brilliant bowling in the two Tests against Australia. Axar Patel and K.L Rahul, who were rested for the New Zealand ODIs, were also brought back as K.S Bharat and Shahbaz Ahmed were left out.

"It's a difficult question, but the answer is very simple. If I have to pick two players, I have an easy answer. My first player would be Rohit Sharma, and the second would be Yuvraj Singh. I didn't need any other player apart from these two. I'm not saying we would be having a perfect team, but we would've won more than two titles (if we had these two players)," Gambhir told Star Sports.

India recently became the top-ranked ODI team after beating New Zealand 3-0 in January, to go with their No. 1 T20I ranking. The Rohit Sharma led side will need to win the second Test against Australia in Delhi, which starts on February 16, to stay on top of the Test rankings and also move a step closer to qualifying for the World Test Championship final in June.

The duo added 81 runs for the unbeaten eighth-wicket partnership which has really put India in the driver's seat in this match. Todd Murphy claimed a maiden five-wicket haul on debut but Australia will rue five chances they dropped in the Indian innings, which could have made things quite different from what they are now.

Sharma, who started the day on 56, waged a grim battle against a strong Australian bowling side, reaching his 100 off 171 balls, hitting 14 fours and two sixes. With him going strong, India were 226/5 off 80 overs at tea on the second day, leading Australia by 49 runs with five wickets in hand. Rohit was batting on 118 off 207 balls, his 341-minute unfinished vigil at the wicket was studded with 15 boundaries and two sixes. Ravindra Jadeja was keeping him company at tea, batting on 34 off 82 balls.

Rohit, who scored his eighth century against England at The Oval in September 2021 had failed to reach the three-figure mark in Tests since then. On Friday on the second day of the first Test of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at the VCA Stadium here, Rohit scored a brilliant hundred, reaching the three-figures in 171 balls, hitting 14 fours and two sixes.

Rohit batted aggressively and raced to his fifty off 66 deliveries as he and K.L Rahul raised 76 runs for the opening wicket as India set themselves for a big total in their first innings. However, they let slip some of that advantage when Rahul got out just an over before stumps, raising Australia's hopes after they failed to reach even 200 in their first innings on a spin-friendly track on which the ball was staying low occasionally.

However, in recent times, it has been proved that if the fans expect a tough contest, they will come out to the stadiums to watch the proceedings, not bothered whether the game will last three hours, eight hours or five days. If the contest is good and strong teams are involved, the battles in the field are good enough to entice the spectators as big crowds at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and other venues have proved.

The Indian team management and touring selector will be facing a selection dilemma with key player Rishabh Pant unavailable following a car accident and a bevy of exciting players lining up to get into the squad. Pant's absence creates a headache for the Indian team's think tank as they have to decide on a few positions that have opened up -- a middle-order spot and a wicketkeeper (they can combine that into one too).

Once known for his daddy hundreds in ODI cricket, Rohit had not scored a century in the 50-over format since January 2020. He was getting fifties but failed to convert those into hundreds. However, on Tuesday, the 35-year-old ended his ODI century drought, scoring 101 off 85, his 30th ton during a 212-run partnership with Shubman Gill (112 off 78) for the opening wicket, which helped India register a convincing win.