Indian cricket stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma surprised their fans by saying they will no longer play T20 matches for the national team. This announcement came after India won the T20 World Cup in 2024. Virat talked about his decision during the ceremony after the match, and Rohit discussed it in a meeting with reporters. Some people think this choice was made ahead of time, but India’s former bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, said that neither Virat, Rohit, nor Ravindra Jadeja had told anyone on the team about their plans to stop playing T20s.
In a talk with Hindustan Times, Mhambrey explained that the team and the coaches were just as surprised by the retirement news as the fans were.
“I don’t think anyone saw it coming (the retirement announcements),” Mhambrey mentioned.
“If there had been any earlier discussions, we would have been aware that this was going to happen. But there were no such discussions. If they had talked about it individually or privately with someone like Rahul (Dravid), that’s another matter, but there were no talks within the team or with other people. So, it was a bit unexpected for us too,” he explained.
Although the decision was unexpected, Mhambrey believes it was the right way for the three players to retire, after consistently playing for over ten years.
“From the players’ point of view, this might be the perfect way to finish with one format, don’t you think? We’re talking about players who have been in the team for over ten years, maybe 12 or 13.
“Virat was part of the 2011 World Cup team. Not winning a World Cup since then must have been a big deal for him. He really wanted to win one. So, when you work so hard for something you’ve wanted for so long, sometimes as a player, you feel like you’ve achieved everything you can in that format and it can’t get any better.
“After winning the T20 World Cup, especially at this stage in their careers… they’re not young anymore. They have to make choices. They need to decide which formats to play and reduce the number of games to focus on specific formats because they’re not getting any younger. They have the experience and skills, but they still need to be smart about it. I think that’s why they might have decided to do this because they couldn’t get any happier than they are now.”