Indian batter Rohit Sharma has broken his silence on the constant speculation around his future in Indian cricket. Over the last few days, reports had been doing the rounds that the third ODI against England would be Rohit's last game in international cricket after the veteran batter got off to a nightmare start in the series.
"My job is with the bat. Come and play, represent my country. That's what I have been told to do since I made my debut. That's what I am going to do," Rohit said in a video posted by the BCCI.
"Since I made my debut, the noise was there. Till the time I am going to be there, the noise will be there. It doesn't really matter too much. What matters is what I do on the field. I want to try and contribute to the success of the team. That's all my focus is."
“If there is no noise, there is no fun. My job is inside. Their job is outside. That's how I look at it,” Rohit said.
Rohit also spoke on India's defeat in the third ODI against England, saying the result was disappointing but the team played good cricket. India, chasing a monumental target of 388, could muster 360/7 in 50 overs, slipping to a 27-run defeat and allowing England to win the series 2-1. Meanwhile, Rohit was at his best in the final game, smashing 138 off 110. Notably, he had returned with scores of 11 and 26 in the first two games of the series.
“A little disappointed with the result because I thought we were playing really good cricket, how we started in Birmingham. We fell a little short at Cardiff with the bat – not enough score on the board. And there, here, again, there was a massive total to chase. We tried everything we could with the bat but again fell short. When it comes to bowling, you’ve got to understand that these guys haven’t played a lot of ODI cricket. You’ve got to give them time, but yeah, hopefully we can learn from this game, take it into our stride, make sure when we come across a situation like that, we try and better ourselves," Rohit said.