Rohit Sharma Shines with a Century as India Beat England by 4 Wickets to Seal the ODI Series

India vs. England, 2nd ODI Highlights: Rohit Sharma takes India over the line by 4 wickets against England and claims the series on Sunday. 

India won the second ODI on Sunday. The series was won after Rohit Sharma paced with 119 runs and Ravindra Jadeja took 3 wickets. England chose to bat first and all out at a 304 score. It was a one-person show in the second half as the Indian captain scored 119 in just 90 deliveries with the help of four singles, twelve fours, and seven sixes. 

Scoring his 32nd ODI century made him move ahead of Rahul Dravid in the international tons rank. He is now third behind Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 and Virat Kohli’s 81. He has now scored 48 international centuries and is second after Kohli. Rohit also climbed the ODI sixes leaderboard ahead of Chris Gayl, who is 331. He ranks second with the most ODI sixes. Only Shahid Afridi, with 351, has more.

Rohit Sharma Early Life and Career

Rohit Sharma was born in Maharashtra, India, on April 30, 1987. In 1999, he attended a cricket camp after coach Dinesh Lad was able to identify his skills. Dinesh Lad was friends with his uncle. He searched for good talent and was particularly impressed with Sharma’s bowling. Knowing that Sharma's uncle could not afford the fees at the school where he worked, Lad persuaded the headmaster to take Sharma without payment so he could access better training resources. This way, Lad would ensure there is a good spinner in batting later on in his career.

Sharma's first senior appearance was with West Zone in a List A match during the Deodhar Trophy. Here, he scored an unbeaten 31 against Central Zone in 2006. His run of scores, which got him noticed during the tournament, earned him a spot on the India A squad. In a later match in 2006, Sharma made his first-class debut for India A. He played against New Zealand at Darwin. His scores in the two innings were 57 and 22, respectively. 

India defeated New Zealand by three wickets. After that, he played for Mumbai in the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy season and became one of the emerging stars in the challenging Indian domestic circuit. His performances during the season included a double hundred against Gujarat and a winning half-century in the tournament's final.

International Career

Rohit Sharma began his international cricket career in 2007 with the ODI and T20I debuts, although he had not entirely found his footing. Years remained in earnest struggle with form and fitness issues. However, the opener's promotion to ODI took place in 2013, which was the breakthrough. Thereafter, his career skyrocketed. He broke numerous records, including the highest individual score in ODIs at 264 and the second Indian to hit a hundred across all three formats. His glory included captaincy with multiple series wins, including swashbuckling in the 2017 ODI series against Sri Lanka. He brought his team to the 2019 World Cup semifinals, scoring five centuries during the World Cup. 

Sharma first served as vice-captain of the Test team in 2020. After gaining the role of captain of the Indian team in all formats in 2022, he led India with dominance for a successful period. Most notably, Sharma accumulated several centuries, setting the record for the most sixes in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Sharma's heroics led India to T20I World Cup success in 2024, with three half-centuries, thus marking his retirement from the T20I form of cricket after India's victory.

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