London: With his back against the wall and an illustrious career on the line, Rohit Sharma silenced his critics the only way he can, smashing one of his most celebrated centuries in recent memory, though it wasn’t enough to prevent a 27-run defeat in the third ODI against England, as India surrendered the series 1-2 here Sunday.
Despite Rohit’s magnificent 138, Shubman Gill’s 77 and Virat Kohli’s 74, India only managed 360 for 7 in pursuit of a mammoth target of 388 built on the back of a career-best 142 from Ben Duckett and 91 from Jacob Bethell.
The 13-ball 41 from Jos Buttler proved to be the decisive factor as England scored 82 in their last five overs.
With speculations about selectors and the head coach ready to move on from Rohit going forward, the 39-year-old former skipper faced enormous pressure going into the third and final game.
Rohit walked onto the hallowed turf of Lord’s with a dual target: winning a series for India and saving his legacy, which was being tarnished by constant speculation from a section of the media.
He didn’t raise his bat after completing his 34th ODI hundred — the first by an Indian batter at Lord’s. Nor did he acknowledge the standing ovation from the suits at the Members’ Balcony after a 110-ball knock stitched with heart, hurt, and sweat.
It was the last time he played an ODI in England, and people would talk for the longest time about how an ageing star showed resolve when the powers that be made him feel unwanted.
A stand of 147 with skipper Gill and 113 with his old pal Kohli raised visions of an improbable victory.
For Rohit, there were 17 boundaries and five sixes — three off Josh Tongue — a pull, one down the ground, and one wide off long-on. There was a pulled six off Sam Curran (4/75 in 10 overs), who proved to be the bowling hero for England.
Curran’s pace off deliveries at the death accounted for Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer and Kohli in a space of seven deliveries to end any hopes that India would have harboured.
Curran got able support from left-arm spinner Jacob Bethell (1/49 in 7 overs), a luxury India never had by playing a lone spinner in Axar Patel.
While India lost the series, one thing is for sure: neither Rohit nor Kohli will be going anywhere until the 2027 World Cup in South Africa.
On the day, Gambhir and Gill’s planning went haywire and playing four pacers with combined experience of 51 games backfired badly.
Jasprit Bumrah’s absence due to an impact injury on his left knee was a blow for India.
The four-pronged pace attack comprising Prasidh Krishna (2/69 in 10 overs), Arshdeep Singh (0/72 in 10 overs), Prince Yadav (1/79 on 10 overs) and Gurnoor Brar (0/97 in 10 overs), lacked both skill and experience against an in-form batting line-up.
Duckett and Bethell were fantastic in terms of planning and execution. The batting powerplay of first 10 overs yielded 58 runs but the wheels came off between overs 11 to 30 when they literally ran the bowlers ragged.
With head coach Gambhir using Kuldeep Yadav in only 38 games out of a total 103 matches (across three formats) since his appointment in 2024, the lack of a second spinner save Axar Patel (0/61 in 10 overs) did hurt India.
While Duckett hit 18 boundaries in all apart from a six, Bethell, who looked comparatively more fluent at the onset, hit 11 fours and a six, before being holed out in the deep off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling.
Joe Root (74 no off 48 balls) continued his golden run of form with another half-century — his third in three games — to take the total past 350-run mark. Jos Buttler (41 no off 13 balls) also joined in the fun as Brar got a harsh lesson in international cricket, going for almost 100 runs.
At the onset, it didn’t help matters that rookie Prince, bowling up the famous Lord’s slope, struggled with his length as Bethell pulled him for a six over deep mid-wicket and then slapped him in the gap between deep mid-wicket and mid-on for a boundary.
The rusty Arshdeep Singh didn’t hold his line while Prasidh Krishna, despite beating Bethell’s bat on a number of occasions, also bowled the odd loose delivery.
However, Bethell did well to complete his half-century off 51 balls while England reached the team total of 100 by the 16th over. By that time, Indian bowlers have already conceded 15 boundaries and the lines were horribly wrong, allowing the opening pair to nicely settle into a rhythm. In all, they conceded 42 boundaries and six sixes.
It also established the fact that all the other Indian pacers look good when the brilliant Bumrah is at work at one end and that effectiveness vanishes once he is absent. One saw that in the T20Is and now in ODIs too.
