Kohli & Rohit retire from T20s post World Cup win

India’s cricket icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have announced their retirement from T20 international cricket after clinching the World Cup title in Barbados.

Kohli’s 76-run performance earned him the man-of-the-match award, while Rohit led India to a historic seven-run victory over South Africa, becoming the first Indian captain to achieve this feat since 2011.

Rohit, aged 37, and Kohli, 35, stand as the top two all-time T20 international run-scorers.

Reflecting on his career in the format, Rohit expressed deep satisfaction: “I started my India career playing this format. This is what I wanted. I wanted to win the cup and say thank you.”

Praising Kohli, Rohit added, “He’s been a champion player without a doubt. We all know what he has done for us. At some point, everyone has to say goodbye to the game, and Virat was very clear that this is what he wanted to do.”

Both players will continue to represent India in Test matches and one-day internationals.

Despite a challenging World Cup campaign, Kohli’s crucial innings in the final helped India reach 176-7.

South Africa, needing 30 runs from the final five overs, faltered against India’s exceptional death bowling, with Suryakumar Yadav’s remarkable catch sealing the victory in the 20th over.

In an emotional moment after receiving the player-of-the-match award, Kohli reflected, “This is my last T20 game playing for India, my last World Cup I was going to play. I wanted to make the most of it. And this was our aim. We wanted to lift the cup.”

Kohli concludes his T20 international career with 4,188 runs from 125 matches, just behind Rohit’s tally of 4,231 runs.

Rohit holds the record for the most T20 international caps by a male player with 159 appearances, and shares the record for most centuries (5) with Australia’s Glenn Maxwell.

Rohit and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan are the only players to have featured in every T20 World Cup since its inception in 2007, when India won the inaugural tournament. India’s previous World Cup victory came in the 50-over format in 2011.