"It's my last T20 World Cup" Virat Kohli announces retirement from T20I cricket after winning ICC T20 World Cup 2024

Virat Kohli won Player of the Match award for his 76 in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 final against South Africa.

After India defeated South Africa by seven runs in a cracker of a final at the Kensington Oval, Barbados, senior Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, who top-scored for the champions in the game with 76 runs, announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game.

After winning the Player of the Match award in the final, Virat Kohli announced that this game will be his final in T20I cricket. The 35-year-old said that he would have retired from T20Is even if India had lost the final.

India clinched the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 trophy by defeating the Proteas by a slender margin of seven runs in Barbados.

After a horrendous run of form in this tournament until the final, having scored only 75 runs in seven innings, Virat Kohli scored 76 runs off 59 balls. His knock helped India go from 34/3 to end up with 176.

Heinrich Klaasen’s assault of 52 runs in 27 balls put South Africa in pole position to win their first-ever ICC World Cup trophy in any format as South Africa needed 30 runs in 30 balls at one point. However, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh bowled five excellent overs to win the game by only seven runs.

This fulfilled India and Kohli’s dream of winning an ICC trophy after a long time. Before this, India won an ICC silverware in 2013. Kohli completed white-ball cricket and is now a one-time ODI World Cup winner, one-time Champions Trophy winner and one-time T20 World Cup winner.

Virat Kohli announces retirement after T20 World Cup 2024 final

The 35-year-old Kohli declared that this was his last game for India in T20Is. He said he is happy to make space for the next generation.

At the post-match presentation ceremony, Kohli said, “This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel like you can’t get a run and this happens, God is great. Just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India. We wanted to lift that cup. Wanted to Yes I have, this was an open secret. 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. It’s been a long wait for us, waiting to win an ICC tournament.”

For more updates, follow Khel Now Cricket for IPL 2024 Live Score & IPL Points Table,  on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.