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Virat Kohli came excruciatingly close to winning his second World Cup title earlier this month but it wasn’t to be. A global icon and a modern-day master, Kohli holds almost every possible ODI batting record that there is, and in a perfect world, winning the World Cup at home would have been the perfect story for Kohli. But in sports, the word ‘perfect’ seldom finds a place. Kohli and the entire team found it out the hard way on the night of November 19 when Australia beat the odds of favourites India to break an entire nation’s hearts and cruise to a sixth World Cup title.
With another heartbreaking outcome in the knockout, up went Kohli and Rohit Sharma‘s dreams of lifting an ICC title in smokes. The two haven’t played T20I since India’s semifinal defeat at last year’s World Cup in Australia, all but indicating that it might be the end of the road for them in at least the shorter format. Irrespective of what fleeting reports say, it is unlikely that either of them will return for the T20 World Cup next year. With India discovering a young and promising bunch of youngsters in the likes of Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma and Ruturaj Gaikwad, going back to Rohit and Kohli might undo all their hard work.
The other big question is 2027… the next 50-over World Cup. Will Kohli play? He will be 39 by the time South Africa hosts the tournament, which makes his chances slim. However, if David Warner is to be believed, Kohli may not only play the World Cup in 2027 but can even go till 2031 when it’s India’s turn to host it again. Kohli by then will be 43, but Warner reckons the amount of importance Virat gives to his fitness, he can go on for another eight years.
“No reason why he can’t, he is very fit and loves the game so much,” Warner replied to a fan post on X which hoped Kohli would play the 2031 World Cup.
No modern-day Indian player has gone on till that long. In fact, 40 is the maximum anyone from India has stretched – Sachin Tendulkar. MS Dhoni carried on till 39. CK Nayudu is the second oldest to have played a Test match at 40 years, 289 days, while Vinoo Mankad was the oldest and played on for another year – 41 years and 305 days – but that of course was decades ago when ODIs didn’t even exist.
Warner also came up with a pretty hilarious response to a query asking whether he intends on playing the next World Cup. To the question, “Sir, will you play the 2027 World Cup also? I want to see you in that WC please,” Warner replied saying ‘2031’ with an emoji, indicating the sarcasm in his answer.
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