Indian skipper Rohit Sharma stood tall when wickets tumbled against England on a double-paced wicket at Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. Rohit became the fifth Indian cricketer to score 18,000 runs in international cricket. Rohit reached the milestone with a boundary off Adil Rashid in the 21st over of the innings.
Sachin Tendulkar is on top with 34,357 runs from 782 innings at an average of 48.52 including 100 centuries and 164 fifties. He is followed by Rohit's current teammate Virat Kohli who has scored 26,121 runs from 569 innings at an average of 53.96 including 78 centuries and 135 fifties.
The current head coach is third on the list with 24,064 runs from 599 innings at an average of 45.57 including 48 centuries and 145 half-centuries. The fourth spot is occupied by Sourav Ganguly who has 18,433 runs at an average of 41.42 including 38 centuries and 106 half-centuries. Rohit is likely to surpass Ganguly in the near future.
Rohit reached his fifty from 66 balls in the 24th over of the innings. During his innings, Rohit also surpassed Kohli to become India's leading run-scorer in the tournament. He went past South Africa’s Aiden Markram as well. He scored 87 runs from 101 balls including 10 fours and three sixes.
Earlier, Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to field first. Rohit did not make any changes to the playing XI in an injured Hardik Pandya's absence.
“We wanted to bat first, we have had a good time batting second. Looks like a good pitch, it's a new surface which has been relayed here. It has played well for the 100 overs. I mean it's quite important to think like that but it's important to get the two points. 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,” Rohit said after losing the toss.
India did not get off to a good start as Chris Woakes got rid of Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and David Willey got the prized wicket of an in-form Kohli. India were reduced to 40/3 in the 12th over.
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