Brett Lee gave me sleepless nights on my first tour to Australia: Rohit Sharma

Indian opening batsman Rohit Sharma shared his toughest fast bowling opponents on Star Sports’ show, Cricket Connected. He talked about how Brett Lee gave him sleepless nights on his first tour to Australia way back in 2007/08, where India squared off against Australia and Sri Lanka in the Commonwealth Bank Tri Series, which India went on to win, securing a multi nation ODI tournament win in Australia after 22 years.
“One bowler is Brett Lee because he didn’t let me sleep the previous night on my first tour to Australia in 2007, as I was thinking how to play this bowler who bowls in excess of 150 kmph. In 2007, Brett Lee was at his peak. I used to watch him closely and noticed that he was consistently bowling at the speed of around 150-155 kmph. The thought of a youngster like me facing that kind of speed took away my sleep,” the three time double centurion in ODI Cricket said.

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Rohit went on to talk about another one of his fast bowling nemesis, Dale Steyn. He said that he could handle pace, good pace. But a delivery with both pace and swing at the same time would be a tedious task to face, according to the 224 ODI veteran.
“I have two retired favourite bowlers who I never wanted to face, one was Brett Lee and the other was Dale Steyn. I never wanted to face Steyn because playing pace and swing at the same time was a nightmare, it was just unreal.” Rohit said.

Rohit also talked about how tough it is to face Josh Hazlewood, who keeps bowling consistently at a good line and length and does not offer anything to the batsman. He said, “Currently, someone whom I don’t want to face in Test cricket would be Josh Hazlewood because he’s disciplined and does not move away from that length. He does not give you loose balls.”
He added, “I have watched him enough to understand that. I know for a fact that if I have to go to Australia to play a Test, then I have to be mentally prepared to be disciplined while facing Josh.”