'If there's no noise, there's no fun' - Rohit unfazed by criticism

Rohit Sharma said he remains unfazed by the criticism surrounding his form, insisting that external "noise" has never affected his approach after responding with a century in the third ODI against England at Lord's.

The former India captain had come into the game under considerable pressure following a prolonged run of low scores across formats, with speculation over his international future gathering pace. Before the Lord's ODI, he had managed just 241 runs in eight innings at an average of 30.12 and a strike rate of 88.60, with only one half-century.

Rohit answered those doubts with his 34th ODI hundred - and his maiden century at Lord's - although the 110-ball 138 ultimately came in a losing cause as India lost the series 1-2. Speaking to bcci.tv after the game, Rohit said his focus has always remained on contributing to the team's success rather than paying attention to outside opinions.

"Look my job is with the bat, come and play, represent my country, represent the team. That's what I've been told to do since I made my debut so that's what I'm going to do. The noise, since I made my debut, was there. And till the time I'm going to stay here, it's always going to be there. So it doesn't really matter too much. What matters is what I do on the field. Try and contribute to the success of the team.

"That's all my focus is right now. And let the noise be there. If there's no noise, there's no fun. My job is inside, their job is outside. That's how I look at it."

The Lord's innings also featured another landmark in Rohit's enduring partnership with Virat Kohli. Their 113-run stand was the 21st century partnership between the pair in ODIs, taking them past Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan (20) into the second place on the all-time list, behind only Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly (26).

In what could potentially have been the duo's final ODI appearance in England together, Rohit reflected on their understanding in the middle. "We've played our entire career together so it was nice to have him in the middle. We've had lot of partnerships. It's always fun batting together. We understand each other so much and yeah, it's always nice in the middle bouncing off ideas, try and see what we can do. So there was [a] lot of conversation that was going around in between when we were batting."

Despite his own hundred, Rohit admitted India were left disappointed after failing to chase down England's imposing total at Lord's, having also fallen short in Cardiff after posting an under-par score.

"A little disappointed with the result because I thought we were playing really good cricket. How we started in Birmingham, we played some really good cricket. We fell a little short at Cardiff with the bat actually. It was not enough [of a] score on the board. And then here again there was a massive total to chase. We tried everything we could with the bat but again fell 20-25 runs short."

India's bowlers had a difficult outing in the decider. In Jasprit Bumrah's absence, the pace attack conceded 27 runs in the first three overs before leaking another 62 in the final three as England posted a daunting total. Despite that, Rohit backed the relatively inexperienced bowling unit and urged patience.

"When it comes to bowling, you've got to understand these guys haven't played a lot of ODI cricket. You've got to give them some time. But yeah, hopefully we can learn from this game, take it into our stride [and] make sure when we come across a situation like that [again], we try and better ourselves."

Rohit also reiterated his fondness for playing in England, saying the conditions continue to test and motivate him, while stressing that India's focus should now shift towards improving collectively.

"I love playing in England. There's no doubt about it. The atmosphere, the ground, the pitches. When you turn up here to play any sort of format, it challenges you in different ways and that's what as a cricketer you want. You want to be challenged all the time. I had my time in the middle. I enjoyed it, but again, like I said, a little disappointed with the result.

"We couldn't finish off the game and get the result in our favour. But yeah, we have to move on from this and try and see how we can get better and see what better we can do as a group. Not just individuals - it's about the group, the collective effort from the group is needed. And that's what I think the team should be focusing on."