India’s World Cup win- Virat Kohli announces retirement from T20I

Bridgetown (Barbados), on Saturday, Star batter Virat Kohli announced his retirement from T20 Internationals after contributing his share for India to their second T20 World Cup win here.

Kohli turned the innings with a match-winning 59-ball 76 with 2 sixes and 6 fours. This had India make a simple 34 for three inside the powerplay, to a fantastic 176 for seven, anchoring India’s 7-run victory over South Africa.

After collecting the Man of the Match award, Kohli out-of-nowhere said that it was his last T20I match for India.

“This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve,” Kohli said after India’s win in a global tournament after 11 years in ICC tournaments history.

“One day you feel like you can’t get a run and this happens, God is great. (It is) just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup,” he said.

“Yes I have, this was an open secret (retirement). 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,” Kohli confirmed when asked if he was making it an official announcement.

“It’s been a long wait for us, waiting to win an ICC tournament. You look at someone like Rohit (Sharma), 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. It’s an amazing day and I’m thankful,” Kohli added.

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