“Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will retire…”: Ex-India star’s bold comment amid India’s great showing in T20 World Cup

Former Indian cricket team batsman Wasim Jaffer believes that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will retire from T20Is after the 2024 T20 World Cup. Both the star batsmen have struggled to score runs in the tournament so far, with Rohit scoring 99 runs in 5 matches and Virat managing just 66 runs in the competition. Ahead of India’s Super 8 match against Australia, Jaffer said he believes this could be the last T20I competition for Rohit and Virat, but insisted they will continue to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, he added that the final decision will be up to them and the selectors.

“I think both of them (Virat and Rohit) will retire from T20Is after the T20 World Cup. It’s their decision eventually and also the selectors’ decision. Although they will continue to play in the IPL, I believe we will last see them in T20Is in the T20 World Cup,” Jaffer said in his Youtube channel.

However, Jaffer also backed Kohli to score one hundred international centuries in his playing career. He currently has 29 Test centuries, 50 ODI centuries and one century in T20 Internationals.

“Yes, I think Virat Kohli will score one hundred international hundreds. He still has a lot of time and the way his fitness is and how consistently he scores his runs, I one hundred percent hope he crosses one hundred hundreds,” Jaffer added.

Meanwhile, Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy were rewarded for their exploits in the last IPL with India’s first call-up for the upcoming white-ball tour of Zimbabwe under the captaincy of Shubman Gill.

Senior players competing in the T20 World Cup in the Americas, including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, have been rested ahead of a grueling season.

The Zimbabwe tour comprises five T20 Internationals, starting on July 6.

(With PTI inputs)