In what was potentially his last appearance for India on English soil, Rohit Sharma lit up the occasion with a stellar century in the third ODI against
England at Lord's. With speculations of his imminent retirement doing the rounds in the media and amongst fans, the veteran batter responded in fine fashion, scoring a magnificent 138 off 110 balls, taking India close to a mammoth 388-run chase at the 'Home of Cricket'. His knock was laced with 17 fours and five sixes, starting cautiously before launching an onslaught on the England bowlers.
Batting first, England put on a mammoth 387 for 3 in their 50 overs on the back of a stellar 141 from Ben Duckett and half-centuries from Jacob Bethell and Joe Root. In response, India started the chase brilliantly with Rohit and skipper Shubman Gill stitching a 147-run opening stand. Rohit was the star of the show, supported by a 77 from Gill and a 74 from Virat Kohli. But a cluster of late wickets meant India fell short of the target by 27 runs in the end, ceding the series 2-1 to the hosts.
Speaking of the game, Rohit said that the Indian team was unable to step up with the bat in the losses in Cardiff and at Lord's after starting the series off on an excellent note. He further backed the bowling attack to perform in the future and termed this part of the learning curve.
"I was a little disappointed with the result because I thought we were playing really good cricket. You know, how we started in Birmingham. We played some really good cricket. We fell a little short at Cardiff with the bat actually. It was not enough score on the board. And then here, again, there was a massive total to chase. We tried everything we could with the bat but again, fell 20-25 runs short with the bat," Rohit said to the BCCI.
"Again, when it comes to bowling, you got to understand these guys haven't played a lot of ODI cricket. You got to give them some time. But yeah, hopefully we can learn from this game, take it into our stride. Make sure when we come across a situation like that, we try and better ourselves," he added.
With his knock, Rohit became the first batter from India to record an ODI century at Lord's, adding another feather to an already packed cap. Rohit stated that he loves playing in England due to the atmosphere and the challenge posed by the conditions that favour seam bowlers.
"Yeah, I love playing in England. There's no doubt about it. The atmosphere, the ground, the pitches. When you turn up here to play any sort of format, it challenges you in different ways. And that's what as a cricketer you want. You want to be challenged all the time. And yeah, I had my time in the middle. I enjoyed it," he added.
The mercurial batter from Mumbai now stands far and away as the overseas batter with the most runs scored in ODIs in England, recording 1603 runs in 30 innings, averaging 64.12. He also now has the joint-most ODI hundreds by a batter in England, with eight, alongside Marcus Trescothick.
