File photo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma
Indian cricket stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma dropped a bomb on fans, as they announced their retirement from T20 internationals as the team lifted the T20 World Cup 2024 title. While Virat broke the news in the post-match presentation ceremony, Rohit shared his plans in the press conference after the game. While many feel the decision was pre-planned, India's departing bowling coach Paras Mhambrey has revealed that neither Virat, Rohit, nor Ravindra Jadeja had shared their plans about calling it quits in the shortest format.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Mhambrey revealed that the T20 retirement decision was equally surprising for the Indian team as well as the support staff as it was for the fans.
"I think no one was expecting that (the retirement announcements)," Mhambrey said.
"If you had any conversation earlier, we would have known this would be coming. But none of them had this conversation. If, individually or privately, they had a conversation with someone like Rahul (Dravid), that's a different thing, but not amongst the team or other individuals. So that was a little surprising for us as well," he said.
While the decision did come as a surprise, Mhambrey feels this was the perfect way for the trio to hang up their boots, having been playing consistently for more than a decade.
"If you look at it from the players' perspective, there can't be a better end to one format, right? We are talking about people who have been part of the dressing for maybe more than a decade, 12-13 years.
"Virat was a part of the 2011 World Cup. And not to win a World Cup since 2011 must have been big. He wanted that badly. So obviously, when you go through a journey to achieve something you wanted so badly for years, sometimes as a player, you feel that journey is complete in that format and that you really can't get better.
"After winning the T20 World Cup, especially the stage that their careers are in... they're no longer young. You've got to sometimes choose. You have to decide what formats you're going to play and cut down the cricket to focus on a particular format because age is not on your side. The experience and skills are there, but still you've got to be smart. And I think that's one of the reasons they must have done that because they couldn't gone on a bigger high than winning the World Cup," Mhambrey said.