Ind vs Eng, 2nd ODI – Rohit Sharma reflects on comeback innings – ‘I really broke it down into pieces’
Rohit Sharma hasn’t been in great form in Test cricket. But in ODIs, a format India haven’t played a lot of over the past year, he remains one of the best in the business. A seven-ball 2 in the first ODI against England might have raised fears ahead of the Champions Trophy, but the 90-ball 119 in the second on Sunday in Cuttack should soothe some nerves. He might not say it in so many words, but Rohit did admit after the game that he “really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team.” Not something he has done a lot of late.
“I really broke it down into pieces about how I wanted to bat,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation after collecting his Player-of-the-Match award. “It’s a 50-over format, a little longer than T20 format and a little shorter than Test cricket obviously – a lot shorter than Test cricket – but obviously you still need to break it down and assess what you need to do at regular intervals and that is what I kept doing. It was important for a batter who gets set, needs to bat as deep as possible and that was my focus.”
Rohit’s lack of runs in international cricket has been talked about a lot. In the last 12 months, he averages 23.70 in Test cricket, and that comes down to 10.93 since September 2024. On Sunday, though, he was in his element, playing the sort of innings that has made him a giant in the format.
“Looking at the pitch, when you play on black soil, [the ball] tends to skid on a bit, so it’s important that you show the full face of the bat when you’re batting initially,” he said about his approach. “Once I got into my innings, I understood what they were trying to do: bowling into our body and trying to not give any room, keeping it on the stumps.
“And that’s where I prepared my plan as well, what I wanted to do with those kind of deliveries, trying to access the gaps which were there. It’s about understanding what you want to do as a batter and… obviously got very good support from [Shubman] Gill to start with and then Shreyas [Iyer] as well.”
With Gill, his opening partner, Rohit added 136 in just under 17 overs, eating into a large chunk of India’s 305-run target, which they eventually got to in the 45th over to win the three-game series with a match in hand.
Gill, who Rohit called “a very, very classy player” who “doesn’t seem to get overawed” by the situation, was effusive in his praise for his captain.
“He makes things much easier than what it is,” Gill, who scored 60 in 52 balls – his second half-century in the series – said. “The way that he took on the bowlers… we have seen that over the past couple of years, how he’s been batting in the ODIs, and the way he dominated the fast bowlers today was just a treat to watch from the non-striker’s end.”
It’s good portents for India ahead of the Champions Trophy, which starts on February 19. Their captain, who has been struggling for runs in Tests – he has retired from T20Is – is as good as he always was in ODIs. That’s one piece of the jigsaw that’s firmly in place.
