Former cricketer Aakash Chopra has doubts whether Rohit Sharma is back to his best after scoring his 32nd ODI century during the second ODI match of England’s tour of India 2025.
He feels that the Indian captain had resolved his issues to an extent by not completely. Rohit knocked 119 runs off 90 deliveries in India’s four-wicket win at Cuttack on February 09.
He will be desired to play another substantial knock in the final game of the three match series as the hosts will be aiming for a clean sweep.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra wonders whether Rohit’s impressive knock has put all his problems to rest.
“Is Rohit Sharma completely back in form? Why am I asking this question? Firstly, his ODI numbers have been incredible.”
“It seemed like what happened in Tests, wouldn’t make a difference because he scored runs in Sri Lanka the last time he played ODIs. Here, he has played two matches and scored a hundred in one,” he said.
“So he is insulated, there is no problem in this format. However, the truth is that the decline we saw wasn’t because of a format, the form had gone suddenly, which is not a good thing.”
“However, does everything become fine after scoring one hundred? They become fine to a large extent but not fully,” Chopra added.
Aakash Chopra pointed out Virat Kohli‘s problems continued despite scoring a century in India’s second innings of the first test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
He highlighted that a solitary century does not imply that the ball will always hits the middle of the bat and the player will keep scoring runs.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra urged Rohit Sharma to play a significant knock in the third ODI match against England.
“I am saying that he should play 50-60 balls in this match as well and it’s fine even if he plays at a run-a-ball. However, once innings are put together one after the after, the wagon comes back on track.”
“Bad form is when you continuously get out early. Good form is when you continuously score good runs,” he said
He also highlighted the significance of the final ODI for the Indian captain. “If you are failing in four out of five innings, it means you are in poor form. However, if you score runs even thrice in five innings, then you are in decent form.”
“Four times – great form. Five times – you are Sir Don Bradman. So I feel this knock is important for Rohit Sharma’s self-confidence as it shouldn’t come to his mind that he scored a century, but something is missing,” Chopra elaborated.
Rohit Sharma has been in excellent form in ODIs over the last two years. He amassed 1255 runs at an average of 52.29 in 26 innings in 2023. He later then scored 157 runs at an average of 52.33 in three matches he played last year.
The final ODI match of the home tour will be played on February 12 at Narendra Modi Stadium.
