Rohit Sharma roared back into form with the bat in the third and final T20I against Afghanistan. He hit a record 5th T20I ton in Bengaluru, registering his highest score in the format, and helped India win the match, albeit in a double super over.
Rohit had come into this encounter on the back of two ducks in Mohali and Indore. India opted to bat first after winning the toss and were shortly reduced to 22/4 with Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson falling for golden ducks.
However, Rohit Sharma took charge and along with Rinku Singh, first consolidated the innings and then fireworks began. Rohit became the batter with the most hundreds in T20I, as he made 121* in 69 balls with 8 sixes and 11 fours. He went past Glenn Maxwell and Suryakumar Yadav, who have 4 tons each in T20Is.
Rohit also added 190* runs with Rinku Singh (69* with 2 fours and 6 sixes), to power India to 212/4. Afghanistan then tied the match with Gulbadin Naib, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Ibrahim Zadran scoring fifties.
The encounter then went into a double super over, which was won by India in the second super over as the hosts pocketed the series 3-0.
After the presentation ceremony, Rohit Sharma joined Jio Cinema’s Hindi commentary team, comprising former India pacer Zaheer Khan and ex-spinner Pragyan Ojha.
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Ojha, former India spinner, recited a few lines of the poem ‘Agneepath’, written by great poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, for Rohit.
“Tu na rukega kabhi, tu na thamega kabhi, tu na jhukega kabhi. Kar Shapath… Agneepath,” said Ojha.
Rohit commended the efforts of his former teammate and stated: “We have played so much with Ojha, did we see any energy in him.”
“We had a lot of discussions before the series. I had not played for one year, so I discussed ideas with Rahul bhai (Dravid). Although I was watching the games, I was not playing. I got an understanding of a few things, so we wanted to implement them and also do something different,” Rohit said.
“We wanted our bowlers to bowl differently, someone wasn’t comfortable bowling in the power play, so we had to use them there. Some were not comfortable bowling at the death, we asked them to bowl there,” he added.
