Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli To Retire After India's T20 World Cup Final Triumph vs South Africa?

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli - two champion cricketers which have been synonymous with Indian cricket for the last two decades - face a strong speculation over their future in the shortest format. Rohit Sharma was part of the Indian cricket team which won the 2007 T20 World Cup on the other hand Virat Kohli played in the 2011 ODI World Cup-winning campaign. That way, the 2024 T20 World Cup is sort of 'coming full circle' for the veteran duo. 

The big question is what next for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma?

Just to jog the readers' minds, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli when on an extended 'break' in T20Is after the T20 World Cup 2022. The buzz was that Hardik Pandya would take over the captaincy in the shortest format and he was the designated skipper in few of the series too. But as the year drew to a close, injury and lean patch saw Pandya slowly getting out of the captaincy scene for the Indian cricket team. 

By the time, India played Afghanistan in a T20I series at the start of the year, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli made a high-profile comeback to the T20Is after a long back. The IPL followed and just during that time Rohit was announced as the captain of the T20 World Cup by BCCI secretary Jay Shah. 

With the T20 World Cup final, the plan to bring back the duo in the shortest format saw a culmination of sorts. 

The next major T20I tournament will be the 2026 T20 World Cup to be played in India and Sri Lanka. For the current Indian cricket team coach, Rahul Dravid, the 2024 edition was the last tournament. The 2026 T20 World Cup will see a new Team India coach, most probably Gautam Gambhir. 

Gambhir's name has been doing the rounds for quite some time now. He would be very interested to use the expertise and experience of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, in the T20Is too. But if he wants an absolutely fresh start, will it be judicious to sustain with Rohit, 37, and Virat, 35, for two more years in the shortest format?

One possibility is that both the players would be 'rested' in the T20Is. That would leave a door for them to be called in whenever the need arise. But if they are not called, the duo cane be proud that they did everything in their power to make India a champion team.