India’s great opening batsman Rohit Sharma has finally spoken openly on the news of his retirement from ODI cricket. Retirement speculation surrounded the former Indian captain during India’s ODI series against England, with the talk gaining momentum before and after the series decider at Lord’s.
However, speaking on BCCI.TV after the match, the India opener made it clear that his focus is on contributing to the team’s success and he is not bothered by outside noise regarding his future.
Rohit Sharma scored a brilliant century at Lord’s, but India lost the series
Rohit responded to the talk of retirement in an excellent manner with the bat. Chasing a challenging target of 388 runs at the Home of Cricket, the veteran opener scored a brilliant 138 runs off 110 balls at a strike rate of 125.45 with the help of 17 fours and five sixes.
After England scored 387/3 with the help of Ben Duckett’s 141, Jacob Bethell’s 91 and Joe Root’s unbeaten 74, Rohit Sharma along with Shubman Gill (77) stitched a 147-run opening partnership to help India chase the target strongly.
Rohit Sharma completed his century in just 84 balls and celebrated the milestone with a simple fist pump before thanking his family in the dressing room and stands. His innings eventually ended in the 39th over when Jacob Bethell bowled him out for 138, and although Virat Kohli contributed 74 runs, India ultimately finished at 360/7, 27 runs short, and England took the three-match series 2–1.
Despite the defeat, Rohit’s innings created history. He became the first Indian batsman to score an ODI century at Lord’s and the oldest Indian to register an ODI century. This was his 46th international century as an opening batsman, the most by an Indian opening batsman. Notably, he used Shardul Thakur’s bat to play the iconic innings at Lord’s.
Rohit Sharma addresses ODI retirement speculations after Lord’s century
During his conversation on BCCI.TV, Rohit Sharma addressed the ongoing discussion regarding his future. The former India captain said that outside opinion has been a part of his career since his international debut and insisted that his only focus is to perform for the team whenever he takes the field. He said:
“Look, my job is with the bat, come and play, represent my country, represent the team. That’s what I’ve been asked to do since I made my debut. So that’s what I’m going to do, you know, there was noise since my debut.
“And as long as I’m 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 team’s success. That’s my whole focus right now. And let the noise be there, you know. If there’s no noise, there’s no fun. My job is inside, their job is outside. So that’s how I look at it.”
“A bit disappointed with the result” – Rohit Sharma on England ODI series defeat
While Rohit Sharma was pleased with his contribution, he admitted that India were disappointed to lose the series after starting with an impressive win at Edgbaston. He also urged patience with India’s relatively inexperienced bowling attack, which was without several key players during the decisive match. Speaking about the 2-1 series loss, Rohit said:
“A bit 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. In Cardiff we really fell behind a bit with the bat. It wasn’t enough scores on the board. And then here, there was a big score to chase. We tried everything we could with the bat, but again fell 20-25 runs short with the bat.
“Again, you know, when it comes to bowling, you have to understand that these guys haven’t played a lot of ODI cricket. You have to give them some time. But yes, hopefully we can learn from this game, take it in our stride, make sure when we get situations like this, we try to better ourselves.”
