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Former India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey who was an integral part of head coach Rahul Dravid’s support staff has made a stunning revelation more than three weeks after veterans Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja announced their T20I retirements. Kohli and Rohit announced their retirement on the same day whereas Jadeja made it public on social media on the next day.
Mhambrey said that noone in the dressing room knew about the decision. However, he is unaware whether the trio had a conversation with Dravid privately.
"I think no one was expecting that (the retirement announcements)," Mhambrey told Hindustan Times.
"If you had any conversation earlier, we would have known this would be coming. But none of them had this conversation. If, individually or privately, they had a conversation with someone like Rahul (Dravid), that's a different thing, but not amongst the team or other individuals. So that was a little surprising for us as well," he said.
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Mhambrey says ‘journey is complete’
Mhambrey feels that there T20I careers could not have ended at a better note. He said that it is difficult for them to not win a World Cup for over a decade.
"If you look at it from the players' perspective, there can't be a better end to one format, right? We are talking about people who have been part of the dressing for maybe more than a decade, 12-13 years.
"Virat was a part of the 2011 World Cup. And not to win a World Cup since 2011 must have been big. He wanted that badly. So obviously, when you go through a journey to achieve something you wanted so badly for years, sometimes as a player, you feel that journey is complete in that format and that you really can't get better.
"After winning the T20 World Cup, especially the stage that their careers are in... they're no longer young. You've got to sometimes choose. You have to decide what formats you're going to play and cut down the cricket to focus on a particular format because age is not on your side. The experience and skills are there, but still you've got to be smart. And I think that's one of the reasons they must have done that because they couldn't gone on a bigger high than winning the World Cup," Mhambrey said.
While Jadeja has been rested for the ODI series in Sri Lanka next month, Kohli and Rohit will return to action on Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as head coach.
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