Virender Sehwag announces retirement from international cricket today: On eve of his 37th birthday, out of contention former Indian captain Virender Sehwag announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect.
Sehwag who had last played for India two and a half years ago in a Test against Australia, had tried his best to make a comeback to the Indian playing XI, but lack of form and continuous streak of runs kept him out of the team.
Virender Sehwag made scored 17,253 runs across all international formats with 8586 runs in 104 Tests, 8273 runs in 251 ODIs and 394 runs in 19 T20Is. He is also the first and only Indian to score a triple century in Test cricket when he struck 309 against Pakistan in 2004. He also scored a 2nd one, a score of 319 against South Africa in 2008.
He had made his debut in 1999 against Pakistan and went on to become one of the most destructive openers in Test and ODI history. He played for Delhi in Ranji Trophy and became a fixture under Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid leadership tenures. He debuted for India against South Africa in 2001 and scored a century batting at no.6 and some months after scored his first ODI ton against New Zealand while opening for the first time for India.
The highlights of career are match-winning centuries in Mumbai, Galle against a rampaging Mendis, his 215 against West Indies, when he fulfilled the prophecy of becoming the second Indian to score a double hundred in ODIs and first captain to score 200 in ODI. For a batsman with such destructive stroke play, he did well in Tests rather than ODIs. But he can take solace from the fact that 14 out of his 15 centuries came in Indian victories including 175 against Bangladesh in the 2011 World cup opener.
He also captained India in 12 ODIs and 4 Tests and was the captain of India’s maiden T20I match. He was the part of World Cup winning team in 2011 and T20 World Cup winning team in 2007. But degrading eyesight and slowing reflexes made him vulnerable in international format, but he still ruled the IPL arena. Rise of M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan proved his ouster from the Test team and Dhawan and Rohit Sharma as openers in ODIs meant, his place in ODI team was also gone.
But he retires as one of the best openers the world has ever seen, he is one of only 4 players to score 2 triple hundreds in Test cricket, the second man to hit 200 in ODIs and first captain to make 200 in ODI. With his retirement, curtains come down on an era which included the Fab 5 in Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
