Cricket World Cup: In his 100th match as captain, Rohit eyes ton as India look to keep record straight against listless England

Popularly known as the Hitman, Rohit has 31 ODI hundreds to his name. However, it will be a 'skipper's special' for the right-handed batter from Mumbai when he takes the field against a deflected England in the league stage game of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 here on Sunday, writes ETV Bharat's Nikhil Bapat.

Lucknow:No less than a century that India captain Rohit Sharma must be looking for in his 100th match as someone whom selectors have chosen to shoulder the gargantuan task of living up to the dreams of over 100 million cricket-crazy Indians nearly two years ago.

Popularly known as the Hitman, Rohit has 31 ODI hundreds to his name. However, it will a 'skipper's special' for the right-handed batter from Mumbai when he takes the field against a deflected England in the league stage game of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 here on Sunday.

At 1.30 PM, when Rohit Sharma will walk for the toss at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, he will lead India for the 100th time today, a fact that the elegant opener would be immensely proud of.

Nagpur-born Rohit Sharma took over the reins of the Indian team from star batter Virat Kohli and since then has led India on 99 occasions in international cricket. He has led the national team in 39 ODIS (with a winning percentage of 76.31), 51 T20 (with a winning percentage of 76.47) and 9 Tests (with a winning percentage of 71.42).

Rohit Sharma will also be immensely proud of the fact that India has won 73 of the 99 international matches that he has led the team. It is under Rohit's captaincy that India are on a winning streak in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup and have won all their five games so far - against Australia (in Chennai), against Afghanistan (in New Delhi), against Pakistan (in Ahmedabad), against Bangladesh (in Pune) and against New Zealand (in Dharamsala).

So the Indian team would want to make the occasion special for Rohit Sharma and gift him a win when they take on defending champions England, who are currently languishing at the bottom of the points table with just one win from five games and with two points.

The burden of captaincy of leading the team in a marquee event has not affected Rohit Sharma at all as he has led from the front in this edition of the World Cup so far. Rohit has bulldozed the Opposition attacks with ease and played around the park.

He has one fifty and one hundred already in his kitty and has broken a few records in the first five matches. After a rare failure against Australia (0) in the opening game for India, Rohit has not looked back. He has scored a blistering match-winning 131 against Afghanistan, a match-winning 86 against Pakistan, 48 against Bangladesh, and 46 against New Zealand.

India have successfully chased all the targets and Rohit, who has scored 311 runs in this World Cup, has had a key role in it. The seasoned Mumbaikar, who got his early lessons from coach Dinesh Lad, would like to pummel the England attack to submission once again in front of a capacity crowd at the Ekana.

Rohit Sharma has been the most successful captain in the cash-rich India Premier League, having won five titles for Mumbai Indians. He also won the IPL Trophy with the now-defunct Deccan Chargers.

Rohit was also part of the 2007 T20 World Cup Winning Indian Team and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy Winning Team, in which he and Shikhar Dhawan played a key role.

India would like to book a spot in the semifinals of the ongoing Cricket World Cup by decimating England and inching closer to their collective dream of lifting the coveted Trophy.

Can Rohit Sharma join the league of ODI World Cup-winning legendary India captains - Kapil Dev (1983) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2011) is a million-dollar question and its answer will be found within a month. For now, the flamboyant batter has to concentrate on the immediate next job against England.