Indian cricket icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced their retirement from T20 Internationals after steering India to the T20 World Cup 2024 title on Saturday.
"This was an open secret, it was not something that I was not going to announce if we'd lost. It's time for the next generation to take over. There are some amazing players playing in India. I've no doubts they'll keep the flag waving high, and really take this team further from here now,” he added.
Kohli played 125 T20I matches in his career, scoring 4188 runs at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04. He is the second-highest scorer in the format.
The ace Indian batter, who made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in 2010, is also the fastest batter to reach the 3500-run milestone in T20Is, hitting the mark in just 96 innings.
With 1292 runs in 35 matches, Kohli, a former Team India captain across formats, also finishes his career at the top of the run scorers’ charts in T20 World Cups. He remains the only player to have been the highest run scorer in two different T20 World Cups.
Kohli scored 319 runs in the 2014 World Cup in Bangladesh and followed it up with 296 runs in the 2022 edition in Australia. His 319 runs in 2014, scored at an average of 106.33, is the highest run tally for any batsman at a single edition of the T20 World Cup.
He was also named in the ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade from 2011 to 2020.
Only Rohit Sharma, 4231 runs in 159 outings, has accumulated more runs in the T20I format than Kohli. Rohit made his T20I debut in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2007 against England and helped India win the trophy under MS Dhoni's captaincy.
