Paras Mhambrey exposes big truth behind Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja's T20I retirements

Former India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey opened up about the retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja from the T20Is after the T20 World Cup 2024. He stated that no one expected that trio to make the announcements as there were no conversations in the dressing room.

After the India National Cricket Team won the T20 World Cup 2024, it marked an end to an era in Indian cricket. Three greats of the game Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from international cricket in the shortest format of the game following the title win.

It came as a surprise for many because not many expected the trio to announce their retirement this early from the format. It was Virat Kohl first who during the post-match presentation after winning the Player of the Match award stated that this was his last game in the format as he felt that it was time for the next generation to take on.

Minutes later during the press conference, skipper Rohit Sharma came up with a similar kind of statement. He mentioned that the final of the World Cup was his last game in the format as he always wanted to win the tournament and say goodbye to the team in the shortest format of the game.

If this was not enough, Ravindra Jadeja through an Instagram post, the next day, announced his decision to retire from the T20I format. The three legends of the game retiring together from the format brought a sense of disappointment to the fans as they didn't expect this to happen.

Paras Mhambrey, who was the bowling coach of India in the T20 World Cup 2024, said that none among Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja had conversations related to their retirement and it came as a surprise for them. He stressed how Kohli won the World Cup in 2011 and achieving the feat in 2024 meant that he completed his journey. Speaking to Hindustan Times, he explained:

"I think no one was expecting that (the retirement announcements). If you had any conversation earlier, we would have known this would be coming. But none of them had this conversation. If, individually or privately, they had a conversation with someone like Rahul (Dravid), that's a different thing, but not amongst the team or other individuals. So that was a little surprising for us as well,"

"Virat was a part of the 2011 World Cup. And not to win a World Cup since 2011 must have been big. He wanted that badly. So obviously, when you go through a journey to achieve something you wanted so badly for years, sometimes as a player, you feel that journey is complete in that format and that you really can't get better."

You've got to sometimes choose - Paras Mhambrey on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja's retirement

Paras Mhambrey further while talking about the retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja, said that they were left with a choice of which format to play. He also revealed why the trio made the decision and stated:

"After winning the T20 World Cup, especially the stage that their careers are in... they're no longer young. You've got to sometimes choose. You have to decide what formats you're going to play and cut down the cricket to focus on a particular format because age is not on your side.

The experience and skills are there, but still, you've got to be smart. And I think that's one of the reasons they must have done that because they couldn't gone on a bigger high than winning the World Cup," he concluded.

Rohit Sharma finished his T20I career as the all-time leading run-getter with 4231 runs. The skipper finished with five hundreds, the most by a batter in T20I cricket. He also hit 32 fifties and had a career strike rate of 140. On the other hand, Virat Kohli slammed 4188 at an average of 48.69 and a strike rate of 137.04. Jadeja ended his career with 54 wickets in 74 games that he played.