Title-winning skipper Rohit Sharma, match-winner Kohli confirm retirement from T20 Internationals

Virat and Rohit 

The Indian captain will be stepping down from the format after India’s T20 World Cup 2024 triumph in Barbados. Separately, Virat Kohli said that the T20 World Cup win over South Africa will be his last in the format for India.

Rohit Sharma confirmed after India’s T20 World Cup win over South Africa that he has played his final international in the format.

“This was my last game as well,” the captain said in his post-match press conference, referring to Kohli’s earlier announcement that he will be retiring from T20Is. “I have enjoyed since the time I started playing this format. No better time to say goodbye to this format. I have loved every moment of this. This is what I wanted – I wanted to win the cup,” and he saluted the room, to applause from the media.

He had earlier dedicated the T20 World Cup triumph to coach Rahul Dravid – with gratitude for his contribution to the sport.

When asked if it was the best moment of his career, Sharma agreed it was certainly up there with the highlights thus far. “This has to be the greatest time. I can say that. It is only because of how desperately I wanted to win this. All the runs that I have scored in all these years, it does matter, but I’m not big on stats and all of that. Winning games for India, winning trophies for India – that is what I look forward to all the time.”

Virat Kohli picked up the Aramco Player of the Match award for his innings of 76 off 59 balls that helped India’s T20 World Cup 2024 glory over South Africa – and announced that he will be stepping down from the international format forthwith.

“This was my last T20 World Cup and this is exactly what we wanted to achieve,” he said. “This was an amazing game. I was telling Rohit [Sharma] when we went out to bat, ‘one day you feel like you can’t get a run, then you come out and things happen.’ I am just really grateful I was able to get the job done for the team on the day that it mattered the most.”

Kohli said his plan to step down from T20 Internationals was an “open secret”, and intended to give the next generation of talent an opportunity to build the team of the future.

“It was a now or never situation. This is my last T20 game playing for India, it is the last World Cup I was going to play, so I wanted to make the most of it.”