ICC WTC final: Can Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma script a redemption story for ages?

A great redemption story needs a downfall. It needs your characters to hit rock bottom, and that is exactly what has happened with Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli.

Some games, some matches, or even some moments, for that matter, feel personal. When Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli take the field on June 7, 2023 in the ICC WTC final, it will be nothing, but personal.

A great redemption story needs a downfall. It needs your characters to hit rock bottom, and that is exactly what has happened. The only thing pending though, is for them to rise like a phoenix and claim what should have been theirs a while ago.

Who can ever forget Rohit Sharma's dejected face during the 2019 World Cup semifinals against New Zealand? Virat Kohli's look post that Russell six that stumped India out of the T20 World Cup in 2016, still feels fresh. These knockouts came on the back of brilliant individual performances.

The team though, as has the case been for the past decade, couldn't capture the ICC Trophy. The 2021 & 2022 T20 World Cups featured similar faces. Indian fans are the most passionate ones, but after it's all said and done, one really has to spare a thought for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who, after apparently giving their all, in terms of batting or leadership, still can't seem to cross that one last hurdle, which now, after all these years, have attained mystical proportions.

Rohit Sharma scored five centuries in the 2019 World Cup and averaged a staggering 81. Virat Kohli scored 273 runs in five games during the 2016 World Cup. He was in such form that Dhoni decided to hand him the ball for the all-important over against Russell, hoping his stars could take India through.

But as destiny would have it, neither Sharma's nor Kohli's performance was enough to warrant India an ICC trophy. So, once the WTC final begins at the Kennington Oval, it would be and should be nothing, but Kohli and Rohit's redemption story. A story where their best is best enough for the team. A story where their best is enough for India to beat the Kangaroos in England and lift the Test mace. A story where all heartbreaks, at once, are forgotten. A story where Kohli and Rohit finally smile in a knockout, that in turn power a billion smiles back home.

It is a story that needs completion. A story that would otherwise be left hanging in the annals of cricketing history as one of the most unfortunate ones. The fact that these two are in the last stages of their legendary careers, makes it all the more important.

Will their best be enough? Will the story be completed? Can they redeem themselves? We'll soon find out.