Former India skipper Rohit Sharma has described his special bear-hug with Virat Kohli soon after the 2024 T20 World Cup final in Barbados as a culmination of their emotions of ‘doing everything together’
for years. Rohit said the duo felt responsible for the team’s fortunes in the tournament and knew that it was their last attempt at winning the title, which made it ‘even more special’ for them.
Rohit’s captaincy was excellent, and he was one of India’s best batters in the World Cup, scoring 257 runs at a strike rate of 156.71 (third-best among the top-10 run-scorers on mostly bowling-friendly wickets). Kohli had a difficult tournament overall but anchored India’s first innings in the final against South Africa, putting up 76 off 59 as the Men in Blue scored 176-7 and defended it by a margin of seven runs.
“There was so much riding on us to take the team through,” Rohit said about the hug. “It’s not that the other guys were not keen or hungry enough, but [we were]… I don’t like to say that word, but the seniormost in that squad. And we have played a lot of cricket together. In fact, when he came into the team, I was only a year old in the team. So, literally, we did everything together, played a lot of cricket together, except for the IPL. And we have seen a lot of setbacks as well with the World Cups. So, for both of us, we knew it was our last T20 World Cup, so it made it even more special,” he added.
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Rohit and Kohli called off their T20 careers on the night of the final. They retired from Tests, too, in May this year, within days of each other.
Now, together, they seem to be pushing themselves for a place each in India’s squad for the 2027 World Cup.
