Rohit Sharma responds to retirement talk with first century at Lord's

Talk of his retirement dominated the pre-match as Rohit Sharma prepared for India's third and final ODI against England at Lord's. But the former Indian skipper produced a memorable century (138 off 110) that should prompt him to reconsider calling it a day.

On a fine batting surface that saw the English post an imposing 387/3, with Ben Duckett making 141 and Jacob Bethell and Joe Root adding 91 and 74 not out respectively, the Indian openers did not disappoint.

Rohit and skipper Shubman Gill added 147 for the first wicket, before the latter was trapped leg before by Adil Rashid for 77. Rohit's century, however, went in vain as India lost by 27 runs after being restricted to 360/7. After making a clean sweep of the T20I series (4-0), the hosts have won the ODI series 2-1.

Rohit reached triple digits against Rashid, with a slog-sweep over deep midwicket. It was the first ODI century by an Indian at Lord's.

Rohit, like his fellow OG, Virat Kohli, had not had much joy at the Home of Cricket. Virat had a best of 45 from three innings, while Rohit had managed 15 and 0 in his previous outings at Lord's.

He was fearless against pace, lifting Josh Tongue for consecutive sixes to reach the 90s, after paddle-scooping Gus Atkinson for back-to-back boundaries to reach his fifty. He pulled away short deliveries on the front foot and flicked fullish ones over midwicket.

The special innings was ended by Bethell, who bowled the 39-year-old as he tried to sweep. Rohit had smashed the bowler for the fifth six of his innings in the previous ball. He hit 17 boundaries.

Rohit has scored over 11,000 runs in ODIs and is regarded as one of the finest white-ball cricketers India has produced.