5 lean patches that forced great Indian cricketers into retirement

#4 Dilip Vengsarkar

Dilip Vengsarkar

Mumbai batsman Dilip Vengsarkar was India's best in the 1980s and had been ranked as the best batsman in the world by the rating system of the era for around two years. However, the final few seasons of his career, from November 1988 till the end of the Australian tour in February 1992, was a torrid period that finally forced him to retire from the game.

During the 18 Test matches in that time span, he did not score a single century and averaged 22.66 (career average 42.13) and his struggle was particularly palpable in the tour of the West Indies in 1989. However, the 1991-92 tour of Australia proved to be the final nail as Vengsarkar averaged only 17.55 in 5 Test Down Under. Calls for his ouster had already gathered currency by that time and once he returned from that tour, he did the decent thing.