5 Legends who retired from International Cricket in 2018

#2 Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir

The top scorer in the finals of both world cups that India won in the 21st century, Gautam Gambhir bid adieu to international cricket a few days before the IPL auctions. One of the most complete batsmen who could match the aggressiveness of Sehwag as well as the grind of Dravid. Once the number one Test batsman in the world, Gambhir played a key role in India's rise to the top of the test rankings in 2009.

With more than 10000 international runs from 56 tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is, Gambhir will go down as one of the finest openers to have played for India. However, on either side of his honeymoon period were disappointments due to his technical flaws which dominated his other attributes.

The decline started after the World Cup when Gambhir's was a walking wicket in the overseas tours of Australia and England where he regularly poked deliveries outside off and India lost all right tests in those tours. Subsequently, he failed in a couple of home series too, which paved the way for his ouster. The emergence of Dhawan and Vijay made it more difficult for Gambhir to make a comeback.

The former KKR skipper was someone who changed the fortunes of the Kolkata based franchise and won them two titles in 2012 and 2014. But the urge to play for his home franchise led to KKR not retaining him in the 2018 auctions. Things did not pan out well for Gauti and he left captaincy midway and was subsequently released from the squad.

For a player of his caliber, the end was rather disappointing.