India captain Rohit Sharma roared back into form with a scintillating 119 runs as the Men in Blue defeated England in the second ODI of the 3-match series in Cuttack by 4 wickets and took a 2-0 lead.
England had won the toss and decided to bat first. Ben Duckett (65), Joe Root (69), and Liam Livingstone (41) helped England score 304 runs in 50 overs. Ravindra Jadeja starred for India, scoring 3/35 in 10 overs.
In reply, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill (60) contributed 136 runs for the first wicket. Rohit added 70 runs with Shreyas Iyer (44) after Gill and Virat Kohli were dismissed for 5 runs each. Axar Patel stayed on 41* as India scored 44.3 overs with four wickets in hand.
After the match, the BCCI shared a video of Rohit Sharma candidly chatting about his form and this particular knock.
"People have played for a number of years and scored so many runs over the years. That means something. I have played this game for a long time now, and I understand what is required of me. So, it's just about going out there and doing your things, and what I did today was one of my things. In my mind, it was just about doing the things that I do. Bat the way I do. Try and bat the way I do,” Rohit said in the video.
During the match in Cuttack, Rohit eclipsed Sachin Tendulkar (15,335 runs) in the list of hitters with the highest runs across formats as an opener. Rohit now has 15,404 runs as an opener across forms, trailing just Virender Sehwag (15,758) on the all-time list.
"Like I said, I have been here long enough. One or two knocks are not going to change my mind. Just another day in the office. We need to do our job, okay. Our job is to just go out there and play the game. As long as you go out there and you know that today when you go to bat, you have given your best, that is what matters," Rohit remarked.
While discussing his approach as a batter, Rohit explained: "Every time I walk on to the pitch, walk on to play the game, I want to try and do well. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it may not happen. As long as I am clear on what I want to do, that's all that matters, nothing else matters.
When you have scored so many runs, you have done something right. You just need to get back to that. That mindset of how to get runs, how to score runs. Sounds really simple, but it is quite difficult. But in my mind, it was just about enjoying. That is what we play the sport for - enjoy the game more than anything else.”
Here is the video:
