Rohit Sharma eyes retirement from T20I cricket: report

The upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 could be Rohit Sharma’s last appearance in T20I cricket as the Indian great is likely to call time on his shorter format career in international cricket, reported Indian media on Monday.

Sharma, who replaced Virat Kohli as India’s skipper across formats in 2021, led the Blues in the T20 World Cup 2022 as well as the 2023 World Cup and the World Test Championship 2021-2023.

According to the report by Dainik Jagran, Sharma’s decision to retire from T20Is is directly linked with Hardik Pandya’s inclusion in India’s World Cup squad. The report states that the all-rounder wasn’t selected for the mega event due to his performances, but because the Indian board sees him as the future captain.

After Pandya was appointed as Mumbai Indians’ (MI) captain ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, things didn’t go smoothly in MI’s dressing room as his relationship with Sharma isn’t the best.

Sharma had led MI for 10 consecutive years before being replaced by Pandya. The decision wasn’t welcomed by fans as the all-rounder was booed on multiple occasions in the tournament. The report stated that while the foreign players have no problems with Pandya’s captaincy, the local players in MI’s squad continue to look at Rohit.

India earlier announced their squad for the mega event where the likes of KL Rahul, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan and others couldn’t make it to the 18-member contention while Shubman Gill and Rinku Singh were named in the travelling reserves.

Remember, India is in Group A with arch-rivals Pakistan and the two sides will take on one another in one of the most anticipated matches of the World Cup on June 9 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York.

India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad

Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya (vice-Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj.

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan