India Relieved As 'Hitman' Rohit Regains Form Ahead Of Champions Trophy

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A month after his poor form forced Rohit Sharma to drop himself from a test match in Sydney, the India captain can finally breathe easy after producing a faith-restoring hundred in Sunday's second one-day international against England.

Rohit quit T20 Internationals minutes after leading India to their second 20-overs World Cup title last year and has struggled in tests.

The Mumbai player turns 38 in April and media reports claim the selectors have asked him about his future plans beyond the Champions Trophy beginning later this month.

Rohit scored two in the opening ODI against England, but Sunday's 119 off 90 balls was a timely reminder that the elegant opener is not a spent force yet.

One of the cleanest strikers of the ball, Rohit clobbered seven effortless sixes and the familiar sweet sound of the bat whacking the ball announced the 50-overs stalwart was back in his element.

"I really broke it down into pieces about how I wanted to bat," player-of-the-match Rohit said of his approach.

"It's a 50-over format ... but you still need to break it down and assess what you need to do at regular intervals and that is what I kept doing.

"It was important for a batter who gets set to bat as deep as possible and that was my focus."

It has been Rohit's template in ODIs - assessing before exploding, an approach that has fetched him three 200-plus scores, the most by a batsman, including a 264 that remains the highest individual score in this format.

In Cuttack on Sunday, it was a typical Rohit knock where he shunned the cross-batted shots early in his knock before hitting the English bowlers all over the park at Barabati Stadium.

"When you play on black soil, (the ball) tends to skid on a bit, so it's important that you show the full face of the bat when you're batting initially," the right-hander said.

"Once I got into my innings, I understood what they were trying to do - bowling into our body and trying to not give any room, keeping it on the stumps.

"That's where I prepared my plan as well, what I wanted to do with those kind of deliveries, trying to access the gaps which were there. It's about understanding what you want to do as a batter."

Rohit is 13 short of 11,000 ODI runs ahead of Wednesday's final match against England in Ahmedabad.

Star batsman Virat Kohli has also been under fire for underperforming and after missing the series opener due to a sore right knee, got out for five on Sunday.

India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 before a blockbuster clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in Dubai three days later.

"The good thing is that before an important tournament like the Champions Trophy, scoring a hundred is a huge boost," spinner Ravindra Jadeja said after the four-wicket win over England.

"It's great for the team, and obviously, he himself knows his game well."

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