Rohit Sharma Issues Bold Statement Amid ODI Retirement Speculation

Rohit said he has never allowed external criticism to distract him, insisting that his primary focus has always been on making meaningful contributions to the team's success.

Rohit's 138-run knock off 110 deliveries, however, was not enough to prevent India from slipping to a 27-run defeat as England sealed the three-match series 2-1.

Source : mufaddal_vohra, X

Veteran batter Rohit Sharma finally addressed the persistent speculation regarding his international future, making it clear that outside chatter does not affect his focus. The former India skipper responded to the growing scrutiny by smashing his 34th ODI century, which also marked his first hundred at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground.

Rohit's 138-run knock off 110 deliveries, however, was not enough to prevent India from slipping to a 27-run defeat as England sealed the three-match series 2-1.

Reflecting on his performance in an interview with bcci.tv, Rohit said he has never allowed external criticism to distract him, insisting that his primary focus has always been on making meaningful contributions to the team's success.

"Look 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. 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. What matters is what I do on the field. Try and contribute to the success of the team.

"That's all my focus is right now. And let the noise be there. If there's no noise, there's no fun. My job is inside, their job is outside. That's how I look at it."

Rohit talks about his chemistry with Virat

Rohit's century at Lord's also produced a big milestone in his long-standing ODI partnership with Virat Kohli. The pair stitched together their 21st century stand in the format, surpassing Sri Lankan greats Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan (20) to move into second place on the all-time list. Only the legendary Indian duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, with 26 century partnerships, remain ahead.

With reports suggesting this could have been Rohit and Kohli's final ODI together on English soil, the India captain spoke about the chemistry and mutual understanding that has defined their successful partnership over the years.

"We've played our entire career together so it was nice to have him in the middle. We've had 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, try and see what we can do. So there was [a] lot of conversation that was going around in between when we were batting."

Rohit reacts to India's series loss

Despite scoring a ton himself, Rohit Sharma admitted India were disappointed after failing to overhaul England's formidable target at Lord's. The defeat came after another unsuccessful chase, with India having also fallen short in Cardiff following an underwhelming batting performance in the series opener.

"A little disappointed with the result because I thought we were playing really good cricket. How we started in Birmingham, we played some really good cricket. We fell a little short at Cardiff with the bat actually. It was not enough [of a] score on the board. And then here again there was a massive total to chase. We tried everything we could with the bat but again fell 20-25 runs short."