6 Indian cricketers who announced retirement at least a couple of years after their last international game

#2 Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar

The Mumbai seamer, often seen as an enigma in Indian cricket for his inability to deliver consistently despite his obvious talent, was a permanent fixture in the Indian ODI side from early to the mid-2000s. He formed a successful pairing with Javagal Srinath, who was in the twilight of his career then, and later, with Zaheer Khan.

However, by 2007, his skills had begun to wane. After a disastrous 2007 World Cup, he was part of the World T20-winning squad but had no major role to play in it. His last international game was the World T20 contest against New Zealand in September 2007 in which he ended with figures of 0 for 40.

Agarkar retired from all cricket in October 2013. He took 288 ODI wickets from 191 matches and 58 from 26 Tests. In T20s, he claimed 3 wickets in four games.

Agarkar once held the record for being the fastest man to reach 50 ODI wickets and also for scoring the fastest ODI fif by an Indian. He scored a Test century at Lord’s in 2002, and claimed 6 for 41 in the famous win at Adelaide in 2003.

#1 Vinod Kambli

Vinod Kambli

Agarkar’s long-time Mumbai teammate Vinod Kambli had a rollicking start to his international career, which hit a rocky path much sooner than expected. After being dropped from the Indian team, rather inexplicably, despite having a decent World Cup in 1996, Kambli was never the same again.

Having made consecutive Test double hundreds in 1993, Kambli played his last Test in November 1995.

The southpaw kept making ODI comebacks into the Indian team, but could never find his groove again. His last international match was against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in October 2000.

Apart from cricket, Kambli dabbled in film and TV shows, and eventually announced retirement from international cricket in 2009.

Kambli made 1084 runs in 17 Tests averaging 54.20, and 2477 runs in 104 ODIs at an average of 32.59. These days he has joined hands with old friend Sachin Tendulkar, and is training young kids in the game in Mumbai.