Rohit Sharma joined Virat Kohli in retiring from T20 Internationals immediately after India won their second T20 World Cup title beating South Africa by seven runs in Saturday’s thrilling final.
Rohit, however, confirmed that he would continue to play ODIs and Tests, and the same can be expected from his predecessor Kohli.
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The 37-year-old Rohit, who was part of the MS Dhoni-led side doing the inaugural T20 World Cup title win in 2007, has featured in all the editions of the showpiece event so far, and thus life comes full circle for the Mumbaikar with the T20 World Cup title win in Barbados on Saturday.
“This was my last (T20I) game as well. No better time to say goodbye to this format. I’ve loved every moment of this. I started my India career playing this format. This is what I wanted, I wanted to win the cup,” Rohit confirmed at the press conference after the final.
“I wanted this badly. Very hard to put in words. It was a very emotional moment for me. I was very desperate for this title in my life. Happy that we eventually crossed the line,” an emotional Rohit said.
Rohit leaves the shortest format as its highest run-getter – 4231 runs in 159 matches – and also holds the record for the most centuries (five) in T20 internationals.
A few moments before Rohit’s announcement, Kohli, whose 76 off 59 deliveries in the final proved pivotal in India’s win, had revealed that he had played his final T20 World Cup, signalling his retirement from the format.
“This was my last T20 World Cup and this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. This was an amazing game. I was telling Rohit (Sharma) today when we went out to bat, ‘One day you feel like you can’t get a run, then you come out and things happen,’” Kohli said referring to his poor run of scores before the final.
“I’m just really grateful I was able to get the job done for the team on the day that it mattered the most. It was a now or never situation. This is my last T20 game playing for India, it’s the last World Cup I was going to play, so I wanted to make the most of it,” said Kohli, and added that it was intended to give the next generation of talent an opportunity to build the team of the future.
Both Rohit and Virat were left out of India’s T20 scheme of things ever since the team’s semi-final defeat in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final against England, but were surprisingly recalled for the Afghanistan series in January this year, with the focus on the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Need 2-3 years to fill the void: Roger Binny
BCCI president and India’s 1983 World Cup winning all-rounder Roger Binny felt that it will take two to three years for the team to fill the void created by the retirement of Rohit and Virat.
“A lot of cricketers are coming through the IPL but it is going to take some time to bridge the gap. They have contributed so much. It’s going to take time. We will probably see in the next two-three years, the team coming back into its own without them,” Binny said.
Meanwhile, Binny said that the BCCI is yet to finalise the next head coach after Rahul Dravid’s stint ended on Saturday. With former India opener Gautam Gambhir among the frontrunners for the top job, Binny however, did not reveal much about it.
“Nothing concrete has come yet. Gautam Gambhir has a lot of experience. He has worked with teams. He played Test matches, ODIs, T20s. Let’s see,” he said.
