The former Indian fast bowler S Sreesanth has announced his retirement from Indian domestic (first class and all formats) cricket. The right-arm fast-bowler from Kerala has made this announcement via a tweet, in which he mentioned to give the young fast bowlers a chance in each format of the game.
Sreesanth has tweeted that he has decided to quit first-class as well as other formats of cricket, and has cherished every moment of his career.
Known as an aggressive fast bowler and a fierce competitor on the cricket field, Sreesanth debuted in first-class cricket back in 2002.
In the 74 first-class games, Sreesanth has picked 213 wickets at an average of 35.9. Overall he has pocketed 391 wickets in 231 games in his domestic career (First Class, List A, Syed Mushtaq Ali). Further, in his five-year-long test career between 2006-2011, the veteran pacer has taken 87 wickets from 27 tests at an average of 37.6 and a strike rate of 62.29.
In his international career, the right-arm pacer has bagged as many as 169 wickets in 90 games. The 39-year-old also played a vital role in India’s impressive performance in their tour to South Africa in 2006 and 2010-11.
The 2007 T20 World Cup winner used to enjoy bowling on the South African soil, which is well evident from the fact that he has an average of 28.55 and a reasonable bowling strike rate of 47.55 in the Rainbow nation. The Kerala-based bowler was also a part of the Indian team that lifted the 2011 ODI world cup.
After serving a seven-year ban for an alleged match-fixing scandal, Sreesanth finally made his return to competitive cricket in 2020. However, he played his first red-ball game in nine years against Meghalaya in the ongoing Ranji trophy and was dropped in the next game.
The Kerala seamer was shortlisted for the IPL auction in 2021 and 2022 but went unsold on both occasions.