Jos Buttler smiled and acknowledged ODI greatness while fielding questions about Rohit Sharma's century in Cuttack. The India captain did not have a great start to 2025 with form deserting him, albeit in a different format. But just in time to take a shot at another 50-over ICC event, the big knock came along. Ravindra Jadeja reckoned it was 'great for the team', while Buttler himself chose to use it as a marker for his own side.
ENGLAND TOUR OF INDIA, 2025
India, England look to tick what remains on their CT checklist
Can Virat Kohli take a leaf out of Rohit's playbook? © AFP
"He (Rohit) really showed that in this day and age, in the modern sort of way of playing 50-over cricket, it's very dynamic, very aggressive. He scored at a rate that just confirms really that the way we want to play is the right way.. the correct way to play cricket," Buttler said.
The theory is sound but England so far have not been able to put it fully to practice. In the two ODIs, they made identical, racy starts but were found wanting in the crucial middle-overs (11-40) where India threw a lot of spin at them. There were marginal gains from Nagpur to Cuttack (129/4 to 155/4) in their middle-overs returns but it was still grossly insufficient on a surface that got better for batting, which will be the case in the third ODI too. Ahmedabad gives their explosive top-seven one more opportunity to right the wrongs, particularly their batting against spin which yielded just 121 runs in 26 overs at a scoring rate of 4.65 in Cuttack.
India appear a lot more settled than their opposition heading into the last outing before the Champions Trophy. Virat Kohli taking a leaf out of
