Zaheer Khan to retire from international cricket: Former India bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan has announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket with immediate impact.
The 37-year-old speedster last played for India against New Zealand in 2014 on the tour to the Kiwi island nation. The news of his retirement was first given by the Indian Premier League chairman Rajiv Shukla on Twitter.
Zaheer Khan who hails from Maharashtra played his first-class cricket for Mumbai and Baroda in Indian domestic leagues. He made his ODI debut in the ICC Knockout Trophy in 2000 and made an immediate impact with vital wickets of Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist. He actually impressed with his pace and his ability to bowl deadly yorkers.
He made his Test debut against Bangladesh in 2000 which was Bangladesh’s first ever Test match. Gradually, Zaheer Khan was groomed to take over the bowling spearhead role from Javagal Srinath and Ajit Agarkar. Zaheer Along with Ashish Nehra and Srinath took India to the finals of the ICC World Cup 2003.
He played 92 Tests for India, picking 311 wickets at an average of 32.94. He has also played in 200 ODIs in which he has 282 scalps at 29.43 apart from 17 wickets in 17 T20Is.
He also made 3 fifties and 1000+ runs in Tests with a highest of 75 against Bangladesh which was then the world record score for a no.11 batsman in Test cricket. Perhaps his most significant memory with the bat will always remain the 4 consecutive sixes he hit to Henry Olonga in an ODI.
He struggled with fitness towards the 2010 but was included in the World cup 2011 squad and he took 21 wickets to help India lift the trophy. After that, a recurring hamstring injury kept him out of the Indian side as Ishant Sharma became the leader of the pack.
He last played an ODI for India in 2012 and a test in 2014. He also played for Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils in IPL. He was not included in Mumbai’s Ranji team for the first 2 matches of the ongoing Ranji season.
His career nurtured under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly as he encouraged him to bowl quick and supported him throughout his tenure. Despite leaving the England tour of 2011 on the first day of the first Test match due to injury, a rigorous fitness regime and training saw him back in the team for the 2012 T20 World Cup.
But it was evident that Zaheer had now become a shadow of his past self. A spark ignited and he was selected for the New Zealand tour in 2014, but that proved to be his last international outing for India. The emergence of Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav also meant that he missed out on the chance to travel to Australia/New Zealand to defend the World cup.
Once the spearhead of Indian bowling, Zaheer retires with his head held high and an impressive record, the only thing missing is a perfect farewell that should have been on the ground instead of a conference room and on Twitter.
