Bridgetown: Following India’s triumphant ICC T20 World Cup title win, cricket legends Virat Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma have announced their retirement from the T20 format. Both players bid an emotional farewell to T20 cricket, marking the end of an illustrious chapter in their careers.
Speaking after the game in a post-match presentation, Virat said, “This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel like you cannot get a run and this happens, God is great. Just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup. Not something that I was not going to announce even if we had lost. Time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward.”
Kohli leaves an indelible mark on T20 cricket with an impressive legacy. In his 35 T20 World Cup appearances, he amassed 1,292 runs, boasting an average of 58.72 and a strike rate of 128.81, including 15 half-centuries and a top score of 89*. His remarkable performance has made him the highest run-scorer in the history of the T20 World Cup. Over 125 T20 Internationals, Kohli accumulated 4,188 runs with an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04, including one century, 38 fifties, and a best score of 122*.
“This was my last game as well,” Rohit Sharma said after the match.
Sharma’s journey in T20 International cricket has come full circle since India’s landmark victory in the 2007 World Cup. As he bids farewell to the T20 format, marking the end of a remarkable career, Rohit Sharma also relinquishes the captaincy role he held for over two years. With 4231 runs in 159 games, Rohit is the format’s best scorer going out. He also owns the record for most hundreds (five) in T20 internationals. He has won two T20 World Cups: the first in 2007 while competing and the current one in 2024 as captain.
A fine exhibition of death bowling by trio of Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya and stupendous knocks by Virat Kohli and Axar Patel helped India end their ICC trophy drought, securing their second ICC T20 World Cup title by beating South Africa by seven runs in a thrilling final at Barbados on Saturday.
