Virat Kohli has announced retirement from T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup 2024. He played a match-winning knock of 76 runs after India opted to bat first and lost three early wickets . This is when Kohli stepped up for the first time and played a brilliant knock. He won the player of the match for his brilliant knock and deservingly won the award in the final.
At the presentation ceremony itself, Kohli confirmed his T20I retirement while also lauding the team for putting up an exceptional effort in the entire tournament. He also went on to say that even if India had lost, he would've stuck to his decision of not playing T20 game again for India. He also cleared that it is time for the next generation to take forward the legacy of Indian cricket at least in this format.
"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. It's been difficult to hold things (emotions) back and I think it's going to sink in later," Kohli said.
As far as Virat Kohli's T20I career is concerned, he played 125 matches in the format amassing 4188 runs at an average of 48.69 and a strike-rate of 137.04 with a century and 38 fifties to his name.
