Team India locked horns with England in their World Cup 2023 match at the Ekana stadium in Lucknow in October 29, Sunday. England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and invited India to bat first. And the moment Indian skipper Rohit Sharma took the field he cracked a special century even before scoring a single run.
This was not just any match for Rohit as he featured in his 100th match as India's skipper when he took the field joining an elite club of Indian skippers. He became just the seven captain to spearhead the team in 100 matches across all formats of the game after MS Dhoni, Mohammed Azharuddin, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev and the present head coach Rahul Dravid.
Talking about his leadership journey Rohit boasts of highest win rate amongst all, standing tall at 73.73 per cent. Rohit has steered his team to victory in 73 out of the 99 games he captained prior to this milestone match. Rohit made his captaincy debut for Men In Blue in Dharamsala against Sri Lanka when he scored just two runs. But the following ODI saw the 'Hitman' roaring back to form, recording an unbeaten score of 208 runs. This feat etched his name as the second captain, following Virender Sehwag, to notch up a double-hundred in ODIs. Not stopping at that, 2017 was the year when Sharma, wearing the captain's hat, struck his first T20I hundred, again against the Sri Lankan side.
Sharma's captaincy hasn't just been about personal milestones. His bat has spoken volumes, accumulating 3918 runs across formats while leading Team India. He has eight scintillating centuries and 24 half-centuries against his name. Not just this, Rohit has also cracked 187 sixes, making him third on the global list, trailing only behind Eoin Morgan (233 sixes) and the legendary MS Dhoni (211 sixes).
Under Sharma's adept leadership, the Indian cricket team has tasted significant successes. The Nidahas Trophy of 2018 and two Asia Cup titles in both 2018 and 2023 stand as testaments to his leadership caliber. Furthermore, under his guidance, India marked their presence in the second World Test Championship final and reached the semifinals of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Talking about the match, England won the toss and invited India to bat first in Lucknow on Sunday.
After losing the toss Rohit said,“We wanted to bat first, we have had a good time batting second. It’s a good surface, it has played well for the 100 overs. It’s quite important to think like that and is also important to play well. We have played some good cricket. It's always good to have a break. It's nice to come back here and get back into business. We are playing the same team we played in the last game.”
India's Playing XI
Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
England's Playing XI
Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
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