Rohit renews romance with the city of his birth

Notches up his first ton as captain and first Test century against Australia

He was born in Nagpur in 1987. He missed out on a Test debut there due to a freak injury minutes before the toss in 2010. He ended his four-year Test hundred drought in 2017 after successive tons in his debut series in 2013 in Nagpur.

Cut to Friday and Rohit Sharma added another chapter to his never-ending association with the Orange City. His classy hundred was not only his first triple-figure score as captain but also his maiden century in whites against Australia, his bogey team so far.

More importantly, the patient knock set up the foundation for India potentially starting the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a win.

Ever since his unbeaten hundred against Sri Lanka here in 2017, Rohit has displayed his ability to shape his game according to the situation and the conditions. This has been vividly displayed ever since he was promoted as opener in Tests in 2019.

In fact, his knock of 120, which came to an end courtesy a peach of a delivery by his Australia counterpart Pat Cummins, can well be divided into two halves. After making the most of a wayward Cummins early on the first evening, Rohit showcased his defensive skills on Friday against a four-pronged attack that was disciplined for most of the day.

“That is the quality of his batting. He has got runs on seaming tracks in England,” India batting coach Vikram Rathour said after the second day’s play.

“But if we talk about this particular innings, he was made to work hard for his runs. Normally, with Rohit when he scores his first few runs, he then pushes the score. But here he had to work hard. It was a special innings by Rohit . He showed good temperament and it was a very important innings as the surface wasn’t easy to bat on,” Rathour said.