Rohit Reveals His Approach After Scoring Match-Winning Century In The Second ODI Against England

Indian captain Rohit Sharma roared back into form after scoring an attacking century in the second ODI against England in Cuttack on Sunday. Chasing a stiff target of 305 runs Rohit looked in great touch from the first ball as he started scoring in his usual style of being aggressive in the first powerplay. The right-hander made the most of the new ball which came onto the bat with ease as he didn’t let the English bowlers settle and along with Shubman Gill took India’s score to 47/0 in the first six overs before a floodlight failure halted play.

The Restart

There were concerns about the lapse in concentration the 40-minute break could cause especially for the batters. But that wasn’t the case as Rohit continued dominating the English bowlers and completed a well-deserved half-century by hitting Adil Rashid for back-to-back fours. Rohit slowed down a bit as India lost Shubman Gill, who scored his second half-century of the series, and Virat Kohli, who was foxed by Adil Rashid.

The Reason

Rohit Sharma completed a much-needed century with a six and ended up scoring 119 runs off 90 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes against his name. This was Rohit’s 32nd ton in ODI cricket and he is now only behind Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar as far as batters with the most number of hundreds in ODI cricket is concerned. When asked about the reason behind a comprehensive team performance Rohit said “This I said after the last match as well, we want to get better as a team and as players. As long guys are clear what they are supposed to do and whatever the captain and coach is saying, if they execute it then there’s not much to think about,” he said in the post-match presentation after being named Player of the Match.

The Approach

Talking about how he approached his batting Rohit said “It was good and really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. Important game with the series on the line but I broke it down to pieces about how I wanted to bat. Longer than T20s and shorter than Tests and I wanted to break it down. I wanted to bat as deep as possible and that was my focus.” “Still, you need to assess and bat according to the situation. I wanted to stay focused and bat as deep as possible. Looking at the pitch when you play on black soil, the pitch tends to skid on a bit so it’s important that you show the full face of the bat. Then they were trying to bowl into the body and not give room so I prepared my plan as well,” he concluded.