Rohit and Virat retire from T20 after winning the World Cup: Kohli is the Player of the Final; Sharma eliminates Australia and England

After 16 years, 9 months and 5 days, India ended its wait to win the T20 World Cup. This was made possible by captain Rohit Sharma’s attacking fifty against Australia-England and Virat Kohli’s Player of the Final performance.

Along with Rohit-Virat, the rest of the team players were also important, but these two giants of Indian cricket retired from T20 as soon as India’s World Cup hunger ended. Therefore, it has become important to know their legendary journey in the shortest format of cricket.

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma won the World Cup together for the first time.

First of all, let’s know what both the players said after winning the final from South Africa…

Virat Kohli
‘This was my last T20 World Cup, this is what we wanted to achieve. Great game. While going to open with Rohit, I told him, someday you feel that you will not be able to score any more runs, then you go to bat and the runs start coming. God is great, I am thankful that I could perform when the team needed me the most.’

India lost 3 wickets for 34 runs in the final against South Africa. From here Virat took charge of the innings and scored 76 runs to take India to a challenging score.

Virat further said, ‘This was my last T20 match. This was our dream, we wanted to win the ICC tournament, we wanted to lift the cup. I respected the situation, kept focus and played according to my team. To be honest, I can’t believe how this happened, as bad as my tournament was going, I am happy to perform in the final.

Even if we had lost the final, I would have retired. Now the new generation should take up the responsibility. The World Cup will be held after two years, India has many talented players, they will take the team forward in the T-20 format. I am sure that they will hoist the Indian flag in this way.

Virat Kohli announced his retirement after becoming the top run scorer of the T20 World Cup.

Rohit Sharma
‘This was my last T20 match. There couldn’t be a better time to say goodbye to this format. I enjoyed every moment of my career. I started my international career with this format. This is what I wanted, I wanted to win the cup.

I have no words. This is a very emotional moment for me, I wanted to win the ICC trophy at any cost. I am happy that we finally did it.

Sangakkara-Jayawardene also said goodbye after winning the World Cup
Just like Sri Lankan legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, Virat-Rohit also said goodbye to T20. Both the Sri Lankan legends won the ICC trophy in 2014 by defeating India in the T20 World Cup final at the Mirpur ground. With this, both the legends said goodbye to the T20 format.

In 2015, both the Sri Lankan legends retired from international cricket. However, after India ended its ICC trophy drought, the chances of Virat and Rohit playing the 2027 ODI World Cup have increased. Rohit will be 40 and Virat 38 then.

Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene retired from the T20 format after making Sri Lanka the T20 World Champion.

Finally, let’s know the legendary T20 journey of both the Indian players…

1. Virat Kohli
Top run scorers in T20 World Cup
Virat scored 76 runs in the final against South Africa. With this, he finished his T20 World Cup career by scoring the highest number of runs i.e. 1292. Virat scored 15 fifties in the tournament. His average of around 59 was the best among the players who scored more than 300 runs.

Many memorable innings were played in the World Cup, but the final innings was the best
82 runs against Pakistan in Melbourne in 2022, 72 runs in the semi-final against South Africa in 2014 and 77 runs against Sri Lanka in the final of the same year were Kohli’s best World Cup innings. But the fifty in the final against South Africa was his best 76 runs in the World Cup career. Because on the basis of this, India won the T20 World Cup after 17 years. For which Virat also got the Player of the Final award.

Became Player of the World Cup twice, scored 270+ runs in 3
Virat is a run machine, but as soon as an ICC tournament comes, his bat starts scoring runs at twice the speed. The T20 World Cup is very special for him. He played the first World Cup of this format in 2012, scored 2 fifties in it. Then in the very next World Cup, he scored 319 runs with the help of 4 fifties, the team may not have won the title then but Virat definitely took the consolation prize by becoming the Player of the Tournament.

The 319 runs scored by Virat in 2014 are the highest runs scored by a player in a single World Cup. This record still stands. Virat did not stop here, he scored 273 runs in 2016 by hitting 3 fifties. Due to bad luck, India could not win the title this time too, but Virat again became the Player of the Tournament.

In 2021, Virat flopped under his own captaincy, in 2022 he made a comeback and scored 296 runs by hitting 4 fifties. However, India remained away from the title this time too, but Virat remained the top scorer. In the first 7 innings of the last tournament in 2024, Virat could score only 75 runs, but in the final he scored 76 runs and became the winner.

Second top run scorer in T20 International
Virat Kohli played 125 T20 matches for India. He scored 4188 runs in these matches at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04. He is the second top run scorer in T20 International. He scored 38 fifties and a century against Afghanistan.

See Virat’s top 5 innings in T20 International in the next graphic…

Kohli has also captained in 50 T20 matches
Virat took over the captaincy of India in limited overs cricket in 2017. He captained in 50 matches, the team won 32 and lost 16. 2 matches were also inconclusive. That is, India won 64% of T20s under Virat’s captaincy. He captained the World Cup for the only time in 2021, India won 3 out of 5 matches, but the team could not even make it to the semi-finals.

2. Rohit Sharma
Second top scorer of T20 World Cup
Rohit Sharma played the first T20 World Cup in 2007, India won it. Since then Rohit has played 9 consecutive World Cups. In 47 matches, he scored 1220 runs at an average of 34.85 and a strike rate of 133.04. These included 12 fifties. He is the second top scorer of the World Cup after Virat.

Memorable innings played against Australia and England
Before 2024, Rohit’s memorable innings in the T20 World Cup were very few. He played a crucial innings of fifty against South Africa in 2007 and 30 runs against Pakistan in the final. He also scored 79 runs against Australia in 2010. But Rohit’s 2 most important innings came this time.

This time Rohit scored 92 runs in just 41 balls in the last match of Super-8 against Australia. This innings laid the foundation for eliminating Australia. He then scored 57 runs on a difficult pitch against England in the semi-finals and made a 75-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav, which proved to be match winning. He could score only 8 runs in the final, but his attacking approach throughout the tournament showed India the way to victory.

Gave his best in the last World Cup
Rohit could not score more than 250 runs in any World Cup from 2007 to 2022. Earlier in 2014, he scored 200 runs by hitting 2 fifties, which was his highest score in one edition of the World Cup career. In 2024, Rohit hit 3 fifties and scored 257 runs at a strike rate of 156.7. This was his best strike rate in the last 9 World Cups. Rohit also became the second top scorer of the tournament this time.

Top run scorers in T20 International
Rohit played 159 T20 matches for India. In these, he scored 4231 runs at an average of around 32 and a strike rate of 141. He is the top run scorer in this format. These include 32 fifties and 5 centuries. His five centuries came against 5 different teams. He scored his last century against Afghanistan this year.

See Rohit’s top 5 innings in T20 International in the next graphic…

Has won 50 T20 matches for India
Rohit captained India in 62 T20 matches, out of which the team won 50 and lost only 12. That means India was successful in 81% of the matches. With this, he became India’s most successful captain in T20. After him, MS Dhoni led India to victory in 42 out of 72 T20 matches.

Graphics: Kunal Sharma, Ankit Pathak

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