BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla has shared his views on the decision of the senior players to retire from T20I following India’s T20 World Cup 2024 win in the West Indies as well. Notably, India won the T20 World Cup by defeating South Africa in the final by seven runs on Saturday, June 29 at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados as well. However, following the win, veteran players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement from the T20 format. Soon after, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja also announced retirement on his T20I career a day after the win.

“I think the entire country is delighted and everybody is happy. As far as retirement is concerned there’s a stated policy of BCCI that whoever wants to take retirement it’s only up to that player. In this case also, Ravindra Jadeja is also retiring, who hangs his boost from T20 cricket, it’s purely his decision. As Virat Kohli and you know Rohit Sharma as well, it’s purely their decision,” Rajiv Shukla told India Today.

“Definitely they must be thinking that it will pave way for younger players to try their luck with T20I. We have got a lot of many younger players in the pipeline who can showcase their talent coming into the T20. So I think this must be welcomed. The senior players who have decided to opt out from T20 cricket. This is a good decision we all welcome it. They will be available for ODI, they will be available for Test cricket. They haven’t taken retirement from cricket,” he further added.

However, Rohit Sharma was the only player alongside Shakib al Hasan to play all the editions of the T20 World Cup so far as well. The Indian captain retires as the highest run scorer in T20Is with a whopping 4231 runs to his name whereas Kohli retires as the second-highest scorer with 4188 runs as well. On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja also played for India in six T20 World Cups and finally retired as a World champion as well.