India captain Rohit Sharma has dismissed the external criticism surrounding his recent batting form, insisting that such "noise" has never impacted his professional approach. Speaking after the third ODI against England at Lord's, where he scored an impressive 138 off 110 balls, Sharma stated that his primary focus remains on contributing to the team's success rather than reacting to outside opinions. Entering the match under significant scrutiny due to a string of low scores—having managed only 241 runs in eight innings at an average of 30.12 and a strike rate of 88.60 prior to the Lord's fixture—the captain responded with his 34th ODI century. Despite the personal milestone, which marked his maiden hundred at the historic venue, India ultimately lost the series 1-2.
Reflecting on the public speculation, Sharma noted that he has dealt with such commentary since his international debut and views it as an inevitable part of his career. "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," he explained. "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."
The innings also featured a significant milestone in the partnership between Sharma and Virat Kohli. Their 113-run stand marked their 21st century partnership in ODIs, moving them past the record of Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan, who had 20. They now sit behind only the pairing of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who hold 26. Regarding their time together in the middle, which could potentially be their final ODI appearance in England together, Sharma highlighted the strong understanding and constant exchange of ideas between the two veterans.
While pleased with his own performance, Sharma expressed disappointment over the series result. He noted that the team played well in Birmingham but fell short in Cardiff due to an under-par score, and again failed to chase down England's massive total at Lord's, falling 20-25 runs short. Addressing the performance of the bowling unit, which struggled in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah by conceding 27 runs in the first three overs and 62 in the final three, Sharma urged for patience with the relatively inexperienced squad. He emphasized that the group must learn from these challenges and focus on collective improvement rather than individual setbacks, while reiterating his love for the atmosphere and challenges of playing in England.
"We've played our entire career together so it was nice to have him in the middle.
We tried everything we could with the bat but again fell 20-25 runs short." India's bowlers had a difficult outing in the decider.
