Kohli retires from T20 international cricket

Legendary India batter Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from the T20I format.

Kohli announced his decision after winning the Player of the Match award in the T20 World Cup 2024 final.

The right-hander steered India to a safe total with a gritty knock of 76 runs off 59 balls. It was a tough innings for Kohli who did not look like himself at all for the majority of the innings, but finished with some riveting shots, helping India to 176/7 in the first innings of the game. Kohli poured his heart out after the match and said that it was the time for next generation to take over.

Kohli said in his speech that it was an open secret that he was going to call time on his career after the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup 2024. Kohli said that he would have announced his retirement regardless of the result. The legendary player said that India captain Rohit Sharma deserved to win an ICC title as the captain of the Indian team.

“This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel like you can’t get a run and this happens, God is great. Just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup. Wanted to Yes I have, this was an open secret. Not something that I wasn’t going to announce even if we had lost. Time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward. It’s been a long wait for us, waiting to win an ICC tournament. You look at someone like Rohit, he’s played 9 T20 World Cups and this is my sixth. He deserves it,” Kohli said after winning the T20 World Cup 2024.

On the day, India clawed their way back into the game in the final 5 overs of the game. India were down and out when Heinrich Klaasen was hitting the spinners left, right and centre in their chase of 177 runs. However, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah combined to pull off a superb back-end effort which helped India win the game by 7 runs.

Kohli calls time on his career as the second-highest run scorer in the T20I format. Kohli is only behind Rohit Sharma in the all-time list, with 4188 runs to his name.

India captain Rohit Sharma followed suit right after Kohli’s retirement. Rohit announced his decision in the post-match press conference, held after India’s T20 World Cup triumph. Sharma was the top-scorer in the T20I format at the time of his retirement.

(With inputs from agencies)