Rohit Sharma tenacious ton rescues India

India captain Rohit Sharma scored a dogged century on day one of the third test in Rajkot to bail India out of a precarious situation. Rohit led from the front and saved India from 33/3 alongside Ravindra Jadeja who also registered yet another half century in Test cricket. 

This is Rohit 11th century in the longest format and his 47th century in international cricket. His hard fought century took him past former England skipper Joe Root in terms of most international centuries across formats. Root has 46 international tons to his name. 

The opening batter has also equalled SA’s modern day legend Ab De Villiers. De Villiers smashed 47 hundreds during his time in international cricket. 

Significantly, England began the proceedings strongly with ball in hand to dominate the opening session on day one after Rohit won the toss and elected to bat first. Mark Wood, who returned to the playing XI for the third test ran through India’s top order including last test’s double centurion, Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

Shubman Gill, who finally ended his run drought with a century in the last test was sent packing by Wood for a duck. India had their hopes pinned on Gill as he was coming off a resilient hundred. However, it all went orotund for the young batsman as he got a feather to Ben Boakes while playing one outside the off stump.