For a team manager who refused to talk about personal milestones, a 39-year-old Rohit Sharma he hit a shot that left all the enthusiastic cricket fans in pieces. Chasing an unlikely target of 388 in the series decider and striving to extend his career beyond this match, Rohit became the first Indian to score an ODI hundred at Lord’s on Sunday. Rohit’s knock of 138 from 110 balls is set to spark furious debates over his place in India’s ODI World Cup plans. But it should not be lost on the caretakers of Indian cricket that India have lost three of the last four ODI series with India going down by 27 runs on a ground that was closer to the surfaces in India. head coach Gautam Gambhir will board the flight from London after winning just one match on a white-ball tour that also includes suffering a T20I whitewash at the hands of Ireland. Shubman Gill is yet to win a series since taking over the captaincy from Rohit last October. Talks around India’s preparations for next year’s World Cup largely revolve around Rohit at the top of the order. As he has done of late, Rohit fired at the end of a series. And as India have done of late, their batting has always come second to the opposition in high-scoring matches. Most importantly, it is well established by now that the bowling attack is invariably breathless without Jasprit Bumrah, who is sidelined due to an impact injury sustained in the last ODI in Cardiff. The English batsman feasted on the young Indian bowling attack with Ben Duckett scoring 141 off 135 and Jacob Bethell 91 off 93 followed by Joe Root’s unbeaten74 off 48 and Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 13-ball 41. Rohit did what he had to do to tell the team management and the selectors that he is not done playing for India. The innings did not have the fluency and variety of shots one associates with Rohit, but it screamed of his resilience and the mental strength of a champion. The start offered by Gill and Rohit was odd with the duo going at around 5-5.5 runs per over for the first 20 overs of a chase that required a run rate close to 7.5 runs per over. Rohit departed once India lost Gill for 77 from 84 balls at the score of 147 and Virat Kohli departed with an attempt to bring down that total. Rohit’s struggles against the good length ball on the stump were evident as he waited for the short balls to unleash his vintage pulls. His first boundaries on the ground came almost around the 30 mark above once I had absolutely settled. He felt like he was in familiar territory with Kohli in his ears at the other end. The chase really started after 25 overs and fizzled out with a cramping Rohit falling in the 39th over. With a partnership of 103 runs in about 14 overs, Kohli and Rohit came back in time, but the hope of a miracle ended as Kohli departed for 74 off 60.