"Hello, skipper, welcome back." "Missed you": Rohit Sharma regains the trust of the dressing room and dismisses one of his "worst feelings."

Doubts had started to surface, but it's not like Rohit Sharma lost the respect of his peers. He destroyed them at the park on Sunday.

Every class is out. As was the case with Rohit Sharma, it may take some time at times, but "a while" is somewhat arbitrary, isn't it?

How long is "a while"? In the case of Rohit, less than four months. Regardless of whether he played at No. 6 or opened, it has been a challenging, demanding, and stressful four months in Test cricket when the runs just wouldn't come, regardless of whether it was against the pink or the red ball.

The series of low scores made many people blind to the man's class, but on Sunday night at Barabati Stadium, the curtain of fear and suspicion was firmly torn to bits. With a nod to the Rohit that cricket fans have grown to know, love, and adore—a gathering force that buried England under the weight of a 32nd One-Day International hundred—Rohit picked a packed house in Cuttack to remind the Doubting Thomases of the enduring power of class.

The captain's first significant essay since hitting 52 in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test match against New Zealand on October 18 was his incredible 119, which was peppered with generous skyscrapers and placed him second in the list of top six-bashers in 50-over internationals.His combined scores from these two endeavors were 0, 8, 18, 11, 3, 6, 10, 3, 9 (all in Test cricket) and 2 in Thursday's first ODI in Nagpur. This amounts to a total of 70 runs in his previous 10 international innings, which is scarcely commensurate with a player of Rohit's caliber and stature.

Rohit was mostly composed despite the increasing volume of the clamor around him, believing in his methods and his game plans because of his strong work ethic. He would not be human if he didn't allow the run of cheap outs to upset him, but generally speaking, he did lose his shirt when asked about his future after the Champions Trophy, such as before the first ODI.The assurance that he will soon turn the corner was a source of solace for him.

Rohit couldn't have chosen a better moment to strike for a number of reasons. India's first ODI matches since August will be this three-match match against Jos Buttler's team, which will lead into the Champions Trophy starting in a little more than a week. With a 1-0 lead, India's goal was high: they needed to reach 305 to extend their winning streak against England in home series to an incredible nine. Although the batting was deep, wouldn't it be good if the captain could score a few runs off?

In the Indian dressing room, Rohit Sharma made sure he was treated with respect.

Letting his friends down is one of the worst feelings for a leader who has made it a practice to set an example for his peers to follow. Although Rohit's workload has kept respect, adoration, and even amazement high over the past four months, he would have felt the desire to score a goal more than anybody else to prove to himself that the beast that makes runs inside of him is still very much alive and well.

To get back to making runs, Rohit might have taken a different path, but it wouldn't have been Rohit, would it? The past two and a half years have seen him become a dominant force in white-ball cricket.
... he remained loyal to himself by unleashing a raging assault that turned England's pace attack into shaky, gob-smacked ruins.

When he charged at Gus Atkinson in the second over, he received a thick outside edge that skewed over cover-point for four, setting off the carnage. Saqib Mahmood's following ball was creamed way over long-off, and the next was casually whacked over long-on for six. The Barabati was heaving by this point, and Rohit was purring like a cat that had sunk into a big bowl of cream. The amusement was unhindered even by a brief pause when one of the light towers was absent, as Rohit rushed into the "zone" that batters so desperately want but rarely achieve.

Rohit didn't get out of trouble by hitting. He didn't act in frantic hope by swinging, hoicking, slogging, and bludgeoning. His apparent insanity has a method. Insofar as 119 off 90, 12 fours, and seven sixes can be considered conventional, Rohit depended on the conventional because the black-soil surface prevented horizontal bat strokes. He sought the straight field and didn't cut or pull unless the ball was really short.

He surpassed his century with the final of his seven sixes off leggie Adil Rashid. There was no extravagant festivity, no angry yelp from the commentary box, and no tirade-filled punch to the air. As sanguine as ever, Rohit lifted his bat, embraced Shreyas Iyer, and went to work."Welcome back, skip," the boys may have said. I missed you.