Harbhajan Singh retires, draws curtains to glorious 23-year-long international career

Team India’s veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has announced his international retirement on Friday (December 24). The 41-year-old has had a stellar run at the highest level and finally decided to call it quits, drawing curtains to a glorious 23-year-long career in international cricket.

Harbhajan tweeted saying, “All good things come to an end and today as I bid adieu to the game that has given me everything in life, I would like to thank everyone who made this 23-year-long journey beautiful and memorable.

My heartfelt thank you Grateful”

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Harbhajan shared a video along with his tweet and explained, “My journey from the streets of Jalandhar to the Indian team has been spectacular. I have never had the sort of motivation that I did when I was wearing the India jersey. But there comes a time when you have to take the tough decisions and move ahead. I have been willing to make an announcement for the past few years and have been waiting to share this moment with you.

Today, I am announcing my retirement from all forms of the game. Though informally, I had taken retirement before but couldn’t announce it. I have not been playing active cricket for a while but due to commitments with KKR, I have wanted to stay with them. I had already decided to retire. Like every other cricketer, I wanted to say goodbye to this game in the Indian jersy but fate probably had something else in mind.

Whichever team I have played for, I have tried to help them finish at the top, be it Indian team, KKR, MI, CSK or the county sides.”

Harbhajan ended as India’s fourth-highest wicket-taker in Tests (417), also being the first-ever Indian to claim a hat-trick in the longest form of the game. In the white-ball formats, he accounted for 269 ODI and 25 T20I scalps. He was part of the national side’s memorable 2007 T20 World Cup win and 2011 ODI World Cup triumph. He also played an integral role in India achieving the No. 1 rank for the first time in Test cricket in late 2009, under MS Dhoni’s leadership. 

Harbhajan also ended with 4 IPL trophies, playing for Mumbai Indians (MI), Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Overall, he featured in 163 IPL matches, ending with 150 wickets (fifth overall).

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