Indian cricket icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma introduced their retirement from T20 Internationals after steering India to the T20 World Cup 2024 title on Saturday.
Within the closing in opposition to South Africa, Kohli scored 76 off 59 deliveries to assist dig the Indian cricket group out of bother following a shaky begin on the Kensington Oval in Barbados. His knock was pivotal in serving to India win their second T20 World Cup title and the primary in 17 years. He was named Participant of the Match.
“That is my final T20 recreation enjoying for India, my final World Cup I used to be going to play,” the 37-year-old Kohli mentioned after the ultimate. “I wished to benefit from it. And this was our intention. We wished to win an ICC event, we wished to raise the cup.
“This was an open secret, it was not one thing that I used to be not going to announce if we would misplaced. It is time for the following technology to take over. There are some wonderful gamers enjoying in India. I’ve no doubts they will preserve the flag waving excessive, and actually take this group farther from right here now,” he added.
Kohli performed 125 T20I matches in his profession, scoring 4188 runs at a mean of 48.69 and a strike fee of 137.04. He’s the second-highest scorer within the format.
The ace Indian batter, who made his T20I debut in opposition to Zimbabwe in 2010, can also be the quickest batter to succeed in the 3500-run milestone in T20Is, hitting the mark in simply 96 innings.
With 1292 runs in 35 matches, Kohli, a former Crew India captain throughout codecs, additionally finishes his profession on the high of the run scorers’ charts in T20 World Cups. He stays the one participant to have been the very best run scorer in two totally different T20 World Cups.
Kohli scored 319 runs within the 2014 World Cup in Bangladesh and adopted it up with 296 runs within the 2022 version in Australia. His 319 runs in 2014, scored at a mean of 106.33, is the very best run tally for any batsman at a single version of the T20 World Cup.
He was additionally named within the ICC Males’s T20I Crew of the Decade from 2011 to 2020.
Solely Rohit Sharma, 4231 runs in 159 outings, has accrued extra runs within the T20I format than Kohli. Rohit made his T20I debut within the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2007 in opposition to England and helped India win the trophy underneath MS Dhoni’s captaincy.
He doubled up on the T20 World Cup 2024, main the Indian males’s cricket group from the entrance as captain and ending as his group’s highest run-scorer within the event with 257 in eight matches.
The Hitman has additionally scored 5 T20I tons of, probably the most within the format alongside Australia’s Glenn Maxwell.
As captain, the 35-year-old Rohit Sharma led India in 62 T20Is, successful 49 and dropping solely 12. Kohli captained in 50 matches, rising victorious in 30 whereas dropping 16.
“That is my final recreation as nicely, no higher time to say goodbye to this format,” Rohit mentioned after the T20 World Cup closing, which marked his fiftieth win as Indian T20 captain. “I’ve beloved each second of this. I began my profession for India enjoying this format and that is what I wished, I wished to win the World Cup.”