World Cup 2023: One of the greatest ODI innings – Sanjay Manjrekar lauds Rohit Sharma’s knock against England

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar tipped Rohit Sharma’s 87 as one of the batter’s greatest ODI innings in his career. Throughout his glorious ODI career, Rohit has played some scintillating knocks, including three double centuries.

However, on a difficult pitch in Lucknow, Rohit played a gutsy knock to help his team post a fighting score of 229 runs on the board against reigning champions England after they were put into bat by Jos Buttler.

India lost three early wickets of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer but Rohit made the most of his experience to take his team out of jail. The Indian opener added 91 runs with KL Rahul, who scored 39 runs, after India found themselves in a spot of bother at 40-3.

Rohit scored 10 fours and three maximums in his knock as he continued his purple patch in the World Cup. The talisman has scored 398 runs in six matches at an average of 66.33 and a strike rate of 119.16 in the ongoing World Cup 2023.

Speaking to Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar said, “When we talk about Rohit Sharma’s ODI batting and his greatness, we talk about the three double hundreds, and he scored a quick hundred recently as well. But according to me, this knock is one of the greatest ODI innings.”

Manjrekar revealed he rates this knock of Rohit Sharma as highly as he has ever seen because of the pressure, tricky pitch, and potent bowling attack.

“There are two or three reasons for that – the pitch was slightly tricky in the afternoon, the bowling challenge was quite good, the tactics Jos Buttler used were also high quality, and India were under pressure.”

The reputed commentator hailed Rohit Sharma for finding the gaps against England spinners with great precision.

“You might remember a shot he played, I think off Adil Rashid’s bowling, it was an extremely small gap, and he hit a drive with power to find the boundary. Then he hit Moeen Ali over mid-off against the turn. This artistry sets Rohit Sharma apart.”

India will next take on Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday.