Rohit Sharma addresses ODI retirement rumours after historic century at Lord's

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Veteran Indian opener Rohit Sharma has dismissed rumours regarding his ODI retirement, stating that external discussions do not bother him as long as he delivers performances for the team.

“My job is with the bat. Come and play, represent my country, represent the team. That’s what I’ve been told to do since I made my debut. So that’s what I’m going to do. You know, the noise since I made my debut was there. And till the time I’m going to stay here, it’s always going to be there. So it doesn’t really matter too much,” said Rohit.

“What matters is what I do on the field, try to contribute to the success of the team. That’s all my focus is 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,” he added.

Speculation had suggested the third ODI at Lord’s might be his final appearance. Instead, the 39-year-old responded with a masterclass of 138 off 110 balls, becoming the first Indian batter to register an ODI century at the venue.

Rohit talked about his partnership with Virat Kohli

Although Rohit, Shubman Gill (77), and Virat Kohli (74) built strong foundations chasing England’s mammoth 387/3, India suffered a late collapse to fall 27 runs short.

Highlighting his century partnership with long-time teammate Virat Kohli, Rohit shared his fondness for competing in English conditions.

“I love playing in England. There’s no doubt about it. The atmosphere, the ground, the pitches, when you turn up here to play any sort of format, it challenges you in different ways. And that’s what, as a cricketer, you want; you want to be challenged all the time.”

“We played our entire career together [referring to Virat Kohli], so it was nice to have him in the middle. You know, we’ve had a lot of partnerships. It’s always fun batting together. We understand each other so much. And yeah, it’s always nice in the middle, bouncing off ideas, trying to see what we can do. So there was a lot of conversation that was going around in between when we were batting.”

(With inputs from ANI)

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