Tri-Series: 'Rohit knows how to build an innings after good start'

Melbourne: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni praised Rohit Sharma, who has been in good form in the ODI cricket for the past two years, terming him as someone, who now knows the art of "building on good starts".

"If I see the performance in ODIs in the last one and a half years, almost all the batsmen have scored runs. But it is good to see Rohit score consistently. He is someone who knows how to play big innings and he knows how to build on the good starts," Dhoni told the mediapersons at the post-match conference after his team lost to Australia in their opening tri-series match.

"Initially, Rohit leaves the good deliveries out and then once he is set, more often than not, he scores big and we can rotate around him. He also scores at a very good pace, so overall it becomes slightly easy to build the innings," Dhoni said.

"The situation Suresh Raina went in to bat today, it was very crucial to get a partnership going. And he had to curb his instinct to some extent and play defensively initially and then he went on to play his shots. I think both of them played really well today," the skipper added, praising the left-hander's role in the century stand with Rohit.

India were in trouble at 59 for three before the big partnership rescued them. However playing with only six batsmen meant that once the set batsmen, and Dhoni himself, got out, the tail couldn't score too many runs.

"Once I go in to bat at No 6, it seems you have to hit and you can't get out. It's a very difficult thing to balance. We have groomed Jadeja to do the job and I feel with him coming back, it will become slightly easy for us because we all know that he can also hit. Ashwin we all know he can definitely bat. He is a good batsman but he is not someone who will clear big grounds," said Dhoni.