Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli added yet another milestone to their illustrious careers, becoming the first Indian pair to complete 400 international appearances together in the third ODI against England at Lord's in the third and final ODI on Sunday, July 19.
Rohit lit up the occasion with a stellar 138 off 110 balls, coming off the back of chatter in the press about his imminent retirement. In a throwback to old times, Rohit put on a 113-run stand off 86 balls with Kohli (74 off 60) as the pair went
on with a mammoth chase of 388. The pair looked to have the chase in control before Rohit's dismissal to Jacob Bethell brought about a flurry of wickets.
Speaking of batting with his long-time teammate, Rohit stated that he enjoys batting with Kohli because of how they understand each other's game and try to take on big chases in a methodical manner.
"We've played our entire career together, so, you know, it was nice to have him in the middle, you know, we've had lot of partnerships. It's always fun batting together, we understand each other so much, and, it's always nice in the middle, bouncing off ideas, try to see what we can do, so there was lot of conversation that was going around in between when we were batting," Rohit said to the BCCI.
The batter from Mumbai was coming to the game on the back of scores of 11 and 26 in the first two matches. Talks of his retirement from the format were doing the rounds in the media and amongst fans, but Rohit responded with a knock for the ages, becoming India's first-ever ODI centurion at the 'Home of Cricket'.
"Look, my job is with the bat, come and play, represent my country, represent the team, that's what I've been told to do since I made my debut, so that's what I'm going to do, you know, the noise, since I made my debut was there, and till the time I'm going to stay here, it's always going to be there, so it doesn't really matter too much.
"What matters is what I do on the field, try and contribute to the success of the team, that's all my focus is right now, and let the noise be there, you know, there's no noise, there's no fun, my job is inside, their job is outside, so that's how I look at it," the seasoned campaigner added further.
Playing what could be his final match in England, Rohit finished as the overseas batter with the most runs in England in ODIs, having scored 1630 runs in 30 innings, averaging 64.12. His eight centuries in the country are the joint second-most by a batter in England, along with Marcus Trescothick.
