Virender Sehwag announces retirement from international cricket and IPL

Virender Sehwag has taken the call to hang up his boots

Dashing India opener Virender Sehwag has chosen the day of his 37th birthday to officially announce his retirement from international cricket and the Indian Premier League. The confirmation ends a lot of speculation, which had started ever since his one-time teammate Zaheer Khan announced his retirement last week.

The 37-year-old scored a fighting 51 for Haryana in the Ranji Trophy last week, and looks set to continue to play a major role for his team in this year’s domestic season. He is also set to turn out in the Master Champions League in 2016, a T20 league for retired players.

In a long message he posted on the occasion, Sehwag thanked the several captains he had played under who had backed him, and also his ‘greatest partner’ – the Indian cricket fan, for taking part in the journey of love, support and memories – among several others.

He leaves the international arena having amassed 8586 Test runs and 8273 ODI runs. As one his batting partners, Akash Chopra, said about his role as an opener – ‘There was a pre-Sehwag era and a post-Sehwag era.”

Circumstances of the announcement

Despite some claims that Sehwag had been forced to retire by the media (news had broken yesterday that he was set to retire, following which the player had come out in denial), the batsman has said that it had been a long-time decision of his to retire on his 37th birthday.

Perhaps his knock in the Ranji Trophy was his way of going out with a bang, like all India fans had hoped he would.

It had also been speculated that since Sehwag had signed up for the MCL, he was going to retire within the next few months.

Sehwag began his note of thanks by saying that news of his retirement had been like a Mark Twain story – when a funeral had been arranged for the protagonist of the story without him having actually died.

However, as he summed up the fulfillment of his 14-year international career in typical ground-breaking fashion, “I thank everyone for all the cricketing advice given to me over the years, and apologise for not accepting most of it. I had a reason for not following it. I did it my way!”

Thanks everyone for all ur wishes n love.

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 20, 2015

I hereby retire from all forms of international cricket and from the Indian Premier League. A statement will follow.

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 20, 2015

My message. pic.twitter.com/al07Y5PsYF

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 20, 2015