BENGALURU: The fate of the India-England Test series, which is part of the World Test Championship, is yet to be officially confirmed. The fifth and final Test was cancelled after a Covid-19 scare in the Indian camp with Virat Kohli and co leading the series 2-1 last month. Even the England and Wales Cricket Board has written to the ICC on the Manchester Test outcome, but India opener Rohit Sharma believes India have clinched the series. “I don’t know what has happened with the last Test match, whether we won the series or we are going to play that one-off Test match later. In my eyes we have won the series 2-1. That’s how I would like to look at it,” Sharma said at a virtual launch of Adidas ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign.
Irrespective of the final outcome, Sharma impressed with the bat in difficult English conditions, where India openers have not enjoyed major success in the past. He scored 368 runs, highest run-scorer for India in the series, including two half-centuries and a century. His 127 at the Oval was his eighth Test ton and first outside the country. For a player of his stature, one wonders what took him so long to shine outside India, but his Oval innings proved that the Mumbai man is gradually improving in red ball cricket.
Sharma feels he can do much better than this series in the longer format too. “It was a good one based on where I was standing in Test cricket before that. But, I wouldn’t say this was my best. I know my best is yet to come in Test cricket. I know when you are playing in England what sort of mindset or what sort of small little technical adjustments you need to do. I somehow managed to do that. So, I was pretty happy with how I batted on the tour.”