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Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma Announced Retirement From T20 International Cricket

  • By Thetripurapost Desk, Barbados
  • Jun 30, 2024
  • 354

India won the T20 World Cup by defeating South Africa on Saturday. There is an atmosphere of celebration across the country. Meanwhile, one by one two Indian cricketers announced their retirement from the T20 International cricket format. First Virat Kohli said that this was his last T20 cricket match, while shortly after this, captain Rohit Sharma also announced his retirement from T20 cricket. 

ICC also informed about this on its official social media handle. ICC wrote, "After Virat Kohli, captain Rohit Sharma has also decided to retire from T20 International."

In fact, under the captaincy of 37-year-old Rohit Sharma, the Indian team created history on Saturday. India won the T20 World Cup. With this, India has won a World Cup (ODI, T20) title for the fourth time. The Indian team defeated South Africa by 7 runs in the final match. With this victory, 140 crore Indians got a golden opportunity to celebrate. 

But after this, cricket fans were shocked by Kohli and Rohit's retirement from T20.
After the match, Rohit said during the press conference, "This was also my last game. There couldn't be a better time to say goodbye. I wanted this (trophy) badly. It is very difficult to put it into words. This is what I wanted and it happened. I was desperate for this in my life. I am happy that this time we crossed the line."

Rohit Sharma has scored 4231 runs for India in 159 T20 International matches at an average of 32.05 and a strike rate of 140.89. He has 5 centuries and 32 half-centuries in T20 Internationals. His highest score in this format is 121 not out. 

He was also part of the team that won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and he is the only Indian player to have won two T20 World Cups for India. Rohit made his T20 debut for India in the 2007 World Cup match against England.

In the 2022 T20 World Cup also, the Indian team entered the field under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, but the team had to face defeat against England in the semi-finals. A year later, under the leadership of Rohit, the team reached the final of the 50-over World Cup on home ground and lost to Australia in the final match played in Ahmedabad.

Virat Kohli also said after winning the T20 final on Saturday, "This was my last T20 World Cup, this was what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel that you cannot score runs and it happens, it was just a chance, now or never situation. This was my last T20 match for India. We wanted to lift that cup. Yes, I have won, it was an open secret. It was not something that I was not going to declare even if I lost. It is time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward. It has been a long wait for us to win an ICC tournament. You look at a player like Rohit, he has played 9 T20 World Cups and this is my sixth. He deserves it."

Kohli played a total of 125 T20 matches. During this, he scored 4188 runs at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04. He has 1 century and 38 fifties to his name in T20. In this format, he hit a total of 124 sixes and 369 fours