Eden special for me: Rohit

Rohit Sharma, who scored a century on his Test debut against the West Indies today, said that the Eden Gardens has been a special venue for him and familiarity with the pitch here has helped him in building his innings.
"This is where I made my first class (Ranji) debut for Mumbai as well when I started off. If you've noticed, we have won the IPL final here (earlier this year). Also, this was the place where I was given the Mumbai Indians captaincy for the first time," Sharma said.
"The Eden is really special to me. I really love playing here. I got decent amounts of runs here while playing for Mumbai. I hope it turns out to be better tomorrow," Sharma told reporters after his unbeaten 127 in an unbroken 198-run stand with Ravichandran Ashwin (92 batting) put India on course to win the first Test.

The confidence of knowing the Eden wicket at the back of his hand really helped Sharma who said it's always a tricky wicket here as one has to adapt to the conditions.
"The wicket was really slow. It was stopping and coming. Once the ball got older, it was not coming on. You got to hold back and play late. I was just trying to do that. Playing on the rise was not an ideal option on this wicket. I just held back a bit and used their pace to advantage.
"It's not an easy wicket. The odd balls were bouncing and turning. You got to plan to play on this wicket. They were bowling quite well when we lost five early wickets. I just wanted to be there and build partnership. I have played Ranji for so many years. I know what it is like in the middle," he said.

"I got to respect (their attack) and they were bowling in tandem. We needed to stick together. Once we get in, we know we can capitalise later and when the bowlers get tired, and that's what happened at the end of the day," he added.