Virat Kohli retires from T20Is: This was my last T20 World Cup for India | Cricket News
India batter Virat Kohli announced that the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup was his last as a player following the team’s seven-run win over South Africa in Barbados on Saturday.
Kohli made his revelation shortly after he was adjudged the Player of the Match for his 76-run knock in India’s win.
“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 in the post-match chat.
After only securing 75 runs in his previous seven outings in the tournament, Kohli’s knock proved decisive in the final for India. The Men in Blue were reeling at 34 for three in the Powerplay after opting to bat when Kohli paired up with Axar Patel and bailed the team out of trouble.
The duo put on 72 runs for the fourth wicket with Kohli watchfully crafting a 48-ball half-century, the second-slowest T20I half-century for India. Kohli finished on 76 off 59 deliveries with six fours and two sixes. The 35-year-old went level with Marlon Samuels and Kumar Sangakkara as the only men to record multiple fifties in T20 World Cup finals.
Kohli finished his T20I career as the highest run-scorer in T20 World Cups (1292) and the second-highest T20I run-getter (4188), only behind his teammate and captain Rohit Sharma.
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