"T20I retirements of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were surprising for us as well," says Ex-India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey

Paras Mhambrey has not been retained as India’s bowling coach under new head coach Gautam Gambhir.

India’s bowling coach until the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Paras Mhambrey, revealed that Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja had not opened up about their retirement plans in the dressing room with other players and support staff. Three of them retiring in the space of a day of winning the title in Barbados was surprising to the dressing room members as well.

First Kohli announced his T20I retirement while collecting the Man of the Match award after India won the final against South Africa in Barbados. In the post-match press conference, captain Rohit also confirmed his retirement from T20Is. A day later, Jadeja announced his T20I retirement through social media.

Speaking with Hindustan Times, Mhambrey said, “I think no one was expecting that (the retirement announcements). If you had any conversation earlier, we would have known this would be coming. But none of them had this conversation. If, individually or privately, they had a conversation with someone like Rahul (Dravid), that’s a different thing, but not amongst the team or other individuals. So that was a little surprising for us as well.”

Kohli wanted the T20 World Cup badly: Paras Mhambrey

India won their first World Cup trophy since 2011, and first ICC trophy since 2013. Kohli was part of both those wins, but to go on a such long stretch without an ICC title made him more and more desperate, reckons Mhambrey.

Mhambrey said Kohli must have felt that his journey in T20Is had completed with the T20 World Cup crown and hence the 35-year-old decided to call it a day in the shortest international format.

“Virat was a part of the 2011 World Cup. And not to win a World Cup since 2011 must have been big. He wanted that badly. So obviously, when you go through a journey to achieve something you wanted so badly for years, sometimes as a player, you feel that journey is complete in that format and that you really can’t get better,” the former India bowling coach added.

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