When Rohit Sharma was bowled for 83 by Jimmy Anderson not long before tea, he had played so nicely that his dismissal was not the only surprise. Astonishingly, a player of his calibre had never made more in a Test outside India.
Sharma is 34 now and, for all the excellence of his Test record at home (seven hundreds and an average just shy of 80), has long been in danger of being pigeon-holed as a limited-overs great.
As pigeon-holes go, it’s not the worst – not in the third decade of the 21st century. Of the eight double-centuries scored in one-day internationals, he alone has three. His 264 off 173 balls against Sri Lanka at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens in 2014-15 remains a world record. If anyone embodies the white-ball zeitgeist, it is Sharma. Frankly, he could retire happy tomorrow.
Rohit Sharma produced a masterclass in batting for India as he was bowled for 83
His overseas Test record stood out on a day where India took a commanding total of 276-3
His Test career, though, has progressed in fits and starts: 41 Tests in eight years, accompanied by a general sense among Indian fans that the longest form of the game was not really his thing. And when he hooked Ollie Robinson to long leg on the stroke of lunch on the second day at Nottingham, seasoned critics sighed knowingly.
But Sharma shrugged that the stroke had always been part of his repertoire, and he had erred only in its execution. When Mark Wood, who was regularly topping 90mph, dropped short, Sharma helped him over fine leg for six, as if to underline his point.
The quality of Thursday's innings, however, lay not in the odd stroke here or there, but in its unshakeable certainty. England had picked four seamers and, under grey skies, chosen to bowl: at Lord’s, they say, you look up, not down. In similar conditions here three years ago, they had been blown away for 107 and 130.
Sharma missed that collective trauma, which may have been no bad thing, and instead batted with a calm that has often been beyond Indian openers in this country.
As Andrew Strauss observed on Sky: ‘You get the feeling that was something genuinely special. Hard conditions, overcast, bit of swing, and he
