Rohit Sharma (L) and Virat Kohli© AFP
Former Indian cricket team batter Wasim Jaffer believes that both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will retire from T20Is after the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. Both star batters have struggled to score runs in the tournament till now with Rohit scoring 99 runs in 5 matches and Virat managing just 66 runs in the competition. Ahead of India’s Super 8 match against Australia, Jaffer said that he believes that this can be the last T20I competition for both Rohit and Virat but insisted that they will continue to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, he added that the final call will lie with them and the selectors.
“I think they both (Virat and Rohit) will retire from T20Is after the T20 World Cup. It is their call eventually and also the call of the selectors. While they will continue to play in the IPL, I believe we are seeing them for the last time in T20Is at the T20 World Cup,” Jaffer said on his YouTube channel.
However, Jaffer also backed Kohli to score hundred international centuries in his playing career. Currently, he has 29 Test centuries, 50 ODI centuries and one century in the T20 Internationals.
“Yes, I think Virat Kohli will score hundred international hundreds. He has a lot of time left and the way his fitness is and the way he scores his runs with consistency, I hundred percent expect him to cross hundred hundreds,” Jaffer added.
Meanwhile, Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy were rewarded for their exploits in the last IPL with maiden India call-ups for the upcoming white-ball tour of Zimbabwe under the captaincy of Shubman Gill.
Senior players competing in the ongoing T20 World Cup in the Americas, including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested ahead of a gruelling season.
The Zimbabwe tour comprises five T20 Internationals, beginning July 6.
(With PTI inputs)
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