Punit Bisht, Batter Who Partnered Virat Kohli Day After The India Star Lost His Father, Announces Retirement

With Kohli going on to become one of the world's leading batter, Bisht's innings in that Ranji Trophy match and their partnership has become a part of cricketing folklore

Punit Bisht plays a shot during the Vijay Hazare Trophy one day match between Delhi and Services at Ferozshah Kotla Ground on February 28, 2012 in New Delhi, India.

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Former Delhi wicketkeeper-batter Punit Bisht has announced his retirmenet from the sport, ending a career which lasted over 17 years. The 37-year-old made the decision on Wednesday (August 1). While he has played many a memorable knocks during his career, he is also remembered for a partnership he was involved in with Virat Kohli when the latter came out to bat on the morning after losing his father. Kohli was just 17 then and had decided to continue to bat the following morning after losing his father who suffered a brain stroke in the middle of the night.

As Kohli and Bisht were not out overnight, playing for Delhi against Karnataka in December 2006, they resumed their batting the morning after, with the match in a critical stage. Delhi found themselves reeling at 59/5. Bisht and Kohli though played a crucial role, stitching a 152-run partnership with Kohli narrowly missing out on a hundred, getting out on 90 but Bisht going on to make 156, adding another 59-run stand for the seventh wicket with Chetanya Nanda. Thanks to their valiant efforts, Delhi managed to hold on to a draw as they scored 308 in the first innings in response to Karnataka's 446. Karnataka scored 242/6 in their second innings before declaring their  but the four-day game ended in a draw.



With Kohli going on to become one of the world's leading batter, Bisht's innings in that match and their partnership has become a part of cricketing folklore. One of his memorbale knocks also came in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in 2021 where he scored 146 runs off 51 balls. His innings including six fours and 17 sixes as he captained Meghalaya to a massive 130-run win over Mizoram.

Bisht retires after having played 103 first-class matches and as many List A games, scoring 5231 and 2924 runs in them respectively. He even captained Delhi in T20 cricket and was part of the Delhi squad that won the Ranji Trophy Super League.  After his stint with Delhi, he went on to represent Jammu & Kashmir and Meghalaya towards the fag end of his career.