New Delhi: Minutes after Virat Kohli announced his retirement from T20Is, India captain Rohit Sharma took the same route to bring an end to his glorious career in the shortest format of the game. The development comes in after India lifted their second T20 World Cup title, beating South Africa by seven runs on Saturday in the final. This was also Rohit’s first ICC trophy as a captain in three attempts and also became the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to lift the trophy in the shortest format of the game.
India had earlier won the T20 World Cup in 2007 under Dhoni. Incidentally, Rohit was a part of that playing XI too. “This was my last game as well. No better time to say goodbye. I wanted this (trophy) badly. It’s very hard to put in words,” Rohit told the post-match press conference. “This what I wanted and it happened. I was very desperate for this in my life. Happy that we crossed the line this time,” he added.
The 37-year-old had led India in the 2022 T20 World Cup where the team was ousted in the semifinals by eventual champions England. A year later, India reached the final of the 50-over World Cup at home under his leadership, but succumbed to Australia in the summit clash at Ahmedabad.
My last game for India in T20I. Says Rohit pic.twitter.com/KyAry8USSt
— Vimal कुमार (@Vimalwa) June 29, 2024
Rohit leaves T20Is with 4231 runs from 159 matches, having made five hundreds and 32 fifties. He continues to be active in the Test and ODI formats.