451 runs in last 8 ODIs: Rohit Sharma cashes in at Guwahati to allay doubts over 2027 World Cup spot

451 runs in last 8 ODIs: Rohit Sharma cashes in at Guwahati to allay doubts over 2027 World Cup spot originally appeared on Cricket News.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Rohit Sharma has scored 451 runs in his last eight ODI innings, including two centuries in his last three.
• Former India captain’s explosive 101-run knock in Guwahati came inside a record 255-run opening stand with Shubman Gill.
• The knock comes almost exactly a year out from the 2027 World Cup, easing doubts that built up during the England tour.

Rohit Sharma cashes in at Guwahati to allay doubts over 2027 World Cup spot

Rohit Sharma’s ODI future was a genuine talking point just months ago, with reports suggesting he had been told he was no longer part of India’s 2027 ODI World Cup planning.

A pair of low scores in England at the start of that tour only added fuel to that speculation. Since then, though, the story has changed completely.

His response arrived in stages. First came an unbeaten 138 at Lord’s, an innings that forced a public rethink of where he stood. Then, after a quieter 32 in the series opener against West Indies, Rohit produced his most complete answer yet, an unbeaten 101 off 74 balls at Guwahati in a chase of 406.

That knock, built alongside Shubman Gill’s own century in a record 255-run opening stand, has done more than settle an argument about current form. With the 2027 World Cup now almost exactly a year away, it has made the case for his place in that squad considerably harder to ignore.

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Rohit Sharma’s last 8 ODI innings

RunsOppositionVenueDate16v AfghanistanDharamsala13 Jun 202648v AfghanistanLucknow17 Jun 202679v AfghanistanChennai20 Jun 202611v EnglandBirmingham14 Jul 202626v EnglandCardiff16 Jul 2026138v EnglandLord’s19 Jul 202632v West IndiesThiruvananthapuram27 Sep 2026101*v West IndiesGuwahati30 Sep 2026

Across these eight innings, Rohit has scored 451 runs at an average of 75.16, with two centuries and two fifties. The shape of that run is telling in itself, a promising start against Afghanistan, a genuine dip in England, and then two hundreds bookending a solid score against West Indies.

MORE: Most centuries in a match in ODI

Why the England series raised real doubts

It was the two failures in Birmingham and Cardiff, scores of 11 and 26, that turned the volume up on speculation about Rohit’s future. Reports at the time suggested he had already been informed his Lord’s appearance could be his last for India, with the selection committee said to be looking past him for the World Cup cycle.

That backdrop made his response at Lord’s carry far more weight than a routine century normally would. An unbeaten 138 in the very match he was reportedly playing to save his career did more to keep the conversation alive than any public statement could have, and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia later spoke publicly in support of Rohit continuing in the format.

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Why Guwahati changes the conversation entirely

A single big innings can always be dismissed as an isolated response to pressure. Two centuries in three innings, against different attacks and in different conditions, is a pattern rather than a rescue act.

Rohit’s 101 at Guwahati came at a strike rate above 136, with six sixes, hardly the innings of a player merely accumulating to justify his place.

The timing matters as much as the runs themselves. With the 2027 World Cup a year away and India still shaping their core group for South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, a home stretch of white-ball cricket was always going to be the clearest opportunity for Rohit to remove any doubt.

Two hundreds in his last three innings, the most recent one built inside a record opening stand, is about as emphatic an answer as a player under this much scrutiny could have given.

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