Perth [Australia], October 18 (ANI): Former Indian skipper and star opener Rohit Sharma will be playing his 500th international match as he takes to the field for the first ODI against Australia at Perth on Sunday.

The first match of the India-Australia ODI series will be a special one, not only because stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will make their return to the international set-up after the March ICC Champions Trophy win, but it will also mark Rohit's 500th international game, a mark only 10 players have attained in the history of international cricket.

In 499 matches, Rohit has so far scored 19,700 runs at an average of 42.18, with 49 centuries and 108 fifties and a best score of 264.

-54 more runs to move up in ODI run-charts for India

Rohit needs 54 more runs to overcome former captain Sourav Ganguly (11,221 runs) to become India's third-highest ODI run-getter. In 273 matches, he has scored 11,168 runs at an average of 48.76 and a strike rate of 92.80, with 32 centuries and 58 fifties and a best score of 264.

-300 more runs to 20,000 international runs

Just three more centuries' worth of runs, and Rohit will be the 14th player to complete 20,000 international runs and only the fourth Indian player to do so.

-One more century to complete a half-century of centuries

With 49 international centuries to his name, his next century will be his 50th international cricket century, something only nine cricketers and only two from India, Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Virat Kohli (82), have done before.

-A few hits away from becoming the greatest-ever six-hitter in ODIs

Currently at 344 sixes in 273 matches, Rohit Sharma needs just eight sixes to overtake Pakistan's Shahid Afridi (351 sixes in 398 matches) to become the leading six-hitter in ODIs.

Squads:

India Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (w), Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Dhruv Jurel, Prasidh Krishna. (ANI)