Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – two champion cricketers which have been synonymous with Indian cricket for the last two decades – faced a strong speculation over their future in the shortest format even before the T20 World Cup 2024 began. After the final, Virat Kohli announced officially that he is retiring from the format as it was time for the next generation to take over. Now, the focus is on Rohit Sharma.
Rohit Sharma was part of the Indian cricket team which won the 2007 T20 World Cup. That way, the 2024 T20 World Cup is sort of ‘coming full circle’ for him.
The big question is what next for Rohit Sharma?
Just to jog the readers’ minds, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli went 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, in the T20Is too. But if he wants an absolutely fresh start, will it be judicious to sustain with Rohit, 37, for two more years in the shortest format?
One possibility is that Rohit Sharma would continue to be ‘rested’ in the T20Is. That would leave a door for him to be called in whenever the need arises. But if he is not called or he decides to hang up boots, Rohit Sharma can be proud that he did everything in his power as captain to make India a champion team.
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