Mumbai, July 01: They are cricket icons and the two strong pillars of present Team India setup. For more than a decade, they have been almost carrying the responsibility of the national side together, complimenting each other as world class batters and match winners.
Though they both were part of Team India's World Cup wins in the past on different occasions, but they never played together in India's World Cup triumphs in a final earlier. But after a few heartbreaks they finally achieved that goal on June 29, 2024.
They did try together for years for that rare glory on a few occasions, but just could not do it. The most hurting was the Ahmedabad November 19, 2023 match against Australia, when they failed to script together an Indian title win in a World Cup Final.
But months later, they united again and scripted India's famous T20 World Cup final triumph against formidable South Africans in the Caribbean.
But once their long awaited mission was accomplished, Team India captain Rohit Sharma and his predecessor Virat Kohli announced their retirements from T20 Internationals. A great way to sign off from the format indeed.
Their decision to quit the shortest format in international cricket did not surprise many. It was rather much expected.
But their long time teammate, India's ODI World Cup 2023 hero and fast bowler Mohammed Shami was shattered. Shami reacted saying both of them quitting the T20I is shocking. He stated that filling their places in the team is going to be a tough task.
Shami, who is out of action in recent times owing to a surgery, thanked both Rohit and Virat for winning matches for India and creating new records consistently for 15-16 years.
The seasoned pacer also wished that Rohit and Kohli may continue to script more Indian wins in the longer formats in future.
