Following Virat Kohli's retirement announcement, India captain Rohit Sharma has also announced that he has retired from the T20 international format following the final match between India and South Africa. Rohit, who played 159 T20 internationals, ended his career on a high after leading his team to only their second T20 World Cup trophy on Saturday.
Confirming his decision to retire from T20 international cricket in the press conference following the T20 World Cup win, Rohit said, “This was my last (T20) 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.”
"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." the Indian captain added.
Rohit's record in T20I's speaks volumes about his class with the Indian captain being the highest run scorer in the format. In the 159 T20 matches played, Rohit scored 4231 runs at an average of 32 and a strike rate of around 141.
During the T20 World Cup 2024, Rohit Sharma was the second highest run scorer with 257 runs to his name at a healthy strike rate of 156.70 and an average of 36.71.
While Rohit Sharma waited until the post-match presentation to announce his retirement, his opening partner Virat Kohli decided to bid the format a big farewell during the Player of the Match presentation on Saturday. Kohli said it was an "open secret" that he would retire from T20 cricket after the World Cup and that he would have done so even if India had not won the T20 World Cup.
"This was an open secret, it was not something that I was not going to announce if we'd lost… This was going to be my last T20 World Cup playing for India, it's time for the next generation to take over. Two-year cycle, there are some amazing players playing in India, they're going to take the team forward in the T20 format, and do wonders as we've seen them do in the IPL. I've no doubts they'll keep the flag waving high, and really take this team further from here now." Virat stated at post-match presentation.
