Just minutes after India ended their 11-year wait for an ICC trophy, with a T20 World Cup win against South Africa in Barbados on Saturday, Virat Kohli announced his retirement from the format, thus handing over the baton to the next generation. Shortly after, India captain Rohit Sharma followed suit, and later Ravindra Jadeja. So where does that leave Team India? Does that decision put their position at risk in the ODI set-up with the Champions Trophy around? ‘No,’ says BCCI secretary Jay Shah.
Shah praised Kohli and Rohit for his contributions to the T20I format and in India’s run to a second T20 World Cup and first world title since 2011.
“It was same captain last year and same here in Barbados. We won all games except the final in 2023 as Australia played better. This time we worked even harder and played better to win the title,” he said on Monday. “If you look at other teams, experience counts. From Rohit to Virat, all excelled. Experience makes a lot of difference, in World Cups you can’t experiment much also. A good player knows when to say goodbye to the game, we saw that yesterday. You look at Rohit’s strike rate, it is better than a lot of young players.”
Following India’s first ICC title in 11 years, Shah is optimistic about claiming the World Test Championship trophy and the Champions Trophy next year with the likes of Kohli and Rohit still around for the longer formats.
“The way this team is progressing, our target is to win World Test Championship final and Champions Trophy. There will be a similar squad playing there. The seniors will be there,” Shah assured.
Rohit’s retirement from the T20I format also sparked questions about who could be the next India captain. While Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah have been among the names doing rounds, the all-rounder has emerged as the favourite, having led India in Rohit’s stead in the T20I format in the last two years.
In response to the query on Hardik potentially being the next India captain, Shah did namedrop the all-rounder in his remark, but revealed that the final decision rests in the hands of the selectors. “Captaincy will be decided by the selectors and we will announce it after discussing with them. You asked about Hardik, there were lot of questions over his form but we and selectors showed faith in him and he proved himself,” he said.
