Rohit Sharma finds his groove again

Rohit Sharma's bat wasn't working. Those were his words in Sydney – 'bat chal nahi raha hai ' – justifying his decision to stand down from the important fifth Test against Australia in January this year. Before Sunday, the lull had stretched for 10 innings (9 in Tests and 1 ODI), bringing into question his future in the sport.

For the first few minutes of India's chase [in Cuttack], his woeful form threatened to cling to him for the 11th successive time at this level. Rohit played and missed in the first over and hopped in his crease in the second until a full, straight ball arrived with 'outlet' written all over it. His flick came with full flourish, and sent the ball over the mid-wicket fence for the first of his seven sixes on the balmy evening.

On a black soil surface where the ball tends to skid on, Rohit quickly sized up the England pacers. Saqib Mahmood was one of his earliest victims, watching his deliveries on the off-side sail over cover boundary and the long-off fence for two more sixes.

A glitching floodlight tower hit the brakes on Rohit's early onslaught, but he came back moving and feeling all the same after a 30-minute break for restoration. His early carousel of glorious sixes on the night had a fourth addition – off Mark Wood in the eighth over, who he dispatched over long-on. Adil Rashid was then welcomed in the ninth with a sweep behind square and a cut behind point for two fours.

By this point, the scene was eerily familiar – even to England. Rohit, with a 30-ball half-century and the lust for so much more, had reactivated the 2023 World Cup version of himself, where he smashed 597 runs in 11 innings at a strike-rate of 125.95. To put that into perspective: among batters with 400 or more runs in the tournament, only Glenn Maxwell managed a better strike rate (400 runs @ 150.38).

By the murderous standards Rohit set on the night, there was a bit of slowing down in the post-PowerPlay phase. But the drop-off wasn't linear as Rohit followed his World Cup methods and still actively looked for run-making routes, however risky, even if some of his attempts didn't come off as easily as they did earlier. While England tried to course-correct, Rohit tugged at the strings of his batting tempo like a seasoned puppeteer, consistently throwing the bowlers off their rhythm.

England's recaliberation led them to bowl into Rohit's body and try to box him in. But the Indian opener floated at the crease with confidence, still accessing all corners of the ground. The attempts to go short served as a red carpet rolled out for Rohit to get more quick runs as he found the fence on either side and over the fielders stationed at deep fine leg, deep square leg and deep mid-wicket.

Rohit hit 7 sixes en route to his 32nd ODI century

"I really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. I really broke it down into pieces about how I wanted to bat," Rohit said in the post-match presentation after having walked off to a raucous standing ovation for his 90-ball 119 earlier.