Rohit Sharma acknowledged the applause from his teammates and crowd as he reached his 13th Test fifty. He, however, showed that he has unfinished business in Test cricket. Just an hour later, the senior India opener was 17 runs away from scoring his maiden overseas Test ton when James Anderson rattled his stumps.
In a brisk Test knock comprising a flurry of fours against Sam Curran and a six off Mark Wood's short delivery, Rohit scored 83 to put India in a commanding position in the second Test against England at Lord's. The Indian openers defended the first hour to blunt the English attack in the rain-marred first session.
In the second session, Rohit and his partner KL Rahul registered India's third century opening partnership since 1952 at the Lord's. Earlier, Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy had stitched a 106-run opening partnership against England at the venue.
Farokh Engineer and Sunil Gavaskar had also put up 131 for the first wicket back in 1974.
Rohit and Rahul's stand was also India's first century partnership outside Asia since 2010. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag had put up 137 runs for the first wicket against South Africa at Centurion over a decade ago.
Rohit also registered his highest Test score outside the home. His previous best was 79 against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
The Mumbai batsman, who started opening during the 2019 home series against Bangladesh and South Africa, had missed the first two Tests versus Australia. He played the last two Tests and shared two half-century opening stands (of 70 and 71) with Shubman Gill in the third Test in Sydney.
