“It is a very big decision” – Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma on his T20I retirement

Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma reckons it was a very big decision for his ward to call it a day from T20Is. After India lifted their second T20 World Cup title by beating South Africa by seven runs in the summit clash at Barbados on Saturday, Kohli decided to hang his boots.

Kohli also said he would have retired from T20Is even if India had not got over the line. The talisman was not in the best of forms throughout the tournament but brought his A-game to the table in the all-important final against the Proteas.

Kohli scored 76 runs off 59 balls to help India post 176 runs on the board after Rohit Sharma decided to bat first. The right-hander scored 4188 runs in 125 T20I matches at an average of 48.7 and a strike rate of 137.04 and finished as the second highest run-getter in the format.

Rajkumar Sharma said on Star Sports, “It is a very big decision that Virat has taken, that too at such a big moment where India has won the T20 World Cup. He also won the Player of the Match in the final which is the highest point for any player. I appreciate his decision as he wants the youngsters to get more chances and so it is a good decision.”

Adding further, Sharma feels Virat Kohli will be able to focus more on Test cricket, which will be the biggest advantage of this decision.

“The advantage of this decision is that he will now be able to focus more on his favorite format, that is Test cricket. He has done well in that format and I feel he will concentrate more there and bring more laurels to the country.”

This was the first T20 World Cup title for Virat Kohli and he would be delighted to end his T20I career on a high.