BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) — Right up until the Twenty20 World Cup final, there were doubts about whether India should continue to field Virat Kohli.
One of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced failed to score a run.
He scored 75 runs in seven matches, including two ducks, and though India won all of them, Kohli was reduced to a worrying backseat, saved by his middle-order batsmen and bowlers.
This humiliating score followed a brilliant run in the Indian Premier League in which he scored 741 runs at an average of nearly 62, setting or breaking a competition record.
Captain and fellow opener Rohit Sharma maintained that he and Kohli were first choices for the squad list throughout the match despite the duo’s poor runs in the World Cup.
His faith was rewarded in the final against South Africa on Saturday, when Kohli scored 76 off 59 balls to lead India’s batting to a competitive total of 176 for 7. The bowlers defended the total brilliantly. win a thrilling match by seven points He went on to lead India to become world champions for the first time in 13 years.
“Nobody doubted him,” Sharma said about Kohli. The captain announced his retirement from international T20 matches. Late Saturday.
“We know what he’s capable of. He’s been at the top of the game for 15 years. Big players step up when it matters. He hit the big time today. It was a team effort to get those numbers but we knew we needed a guy to step up to the plate and he used his experience to do just that.”
After being named man of the match, Kohli said this would be his final T20 international match.
“Some days it feels like I can’t run, and then some days everything falls into place,” he said.
“I’m very proud to have scored runs for the team on the most important day. This incident made a difference in me and I felt it was now or never. We had been wanting to lift the trophy for a long time and this incident made me put my head down, respect the situation and play the innings that the team wanted from me.”
As for Coli, the skill is there. He has delivered time and time again when it matters.
In the 2014 final in Dhaka, he topped all players with 77 runs off 58 bats, even as India lost to Sri Lanka.
In the 2016 semi-final in Mumbai, he scored an unbeaten 89 off 47 in a loss to the West Indies.
He captained the T20 side in the 2021 World Cup and hit 40 off 50 in the 2022 semi-final against England in Adelaide.
After six T20 World Cup appearances, he has just surpassed Sharma as the tournament’s all-time leading run-scorer but has decided to end his 14-year T20 career on a high rather than stay till the next World Cup, to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka in 2026. By then he will be 37 years old.
“It’s time for a new generation to emerge for India,” Kohli said. “Some great players are emerging and they have to take the team forward.”
“Up until today, I didn’t feel how I felt. I didn’t have any confidence. So right now I feel so grateful and humbled. It’s been a hard thing, so I have a lot of emotions. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. Today is an amazing day. I’m so grateful.”
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AP Cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket