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3 Indian cricketers who came out of retirement to play again
It is the dream of every cricketer to represent his country at least once on an international and big platform. However, at some stage, they will have to bid farewell regardless of how much they love the game. Looking back at the past, there are some players who have managed to play until their late thirties by maintaining an amazing level of fitness, but there are also some players who couldn’t play for long due to injuries.
However, there are some players who came out of retirement to play the sport again and surprised many cricket fans. Former legendary Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi is one of the players whose name is often associated with this rarity as he took retirement five times in his career that spanned 26 years. But that’s not the case with Indian cricketers as there are only a few of them. On that note, let’s take a look at 3 Indian cricketers who made a comeback after announcing their retirement.
1. Javagal Srinath
Javagal Srinath (Source – Twitter)
India never had many quality fast bowlers but former Indian cricketer Javagal Srinath was one the few Indian pacers who had both consistency and speed. Srinath took retirement from Test cricket in 2002 and was also unable to get a place in the ODI squad for a while but the then-Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly called him back for the Champions Trophy final 2002. He was then made a part of India’s squad for the ODI World Cup in 2003 where he took 16 wickets and became India’s most successful bowler of the tournament.
2. Ambati Rayudu
Ambati Rayudu (Source – Twitter)
Ambati Rayudu is one of those Indian players who were exceptionally well while playing in domestic cricket or in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but couldn’t make a career while playing for the national side. Rayudu suffered a huge setback when he wasn’t included in India’s squad for the ODI World Cup 2019 despite performing so well in the past. He was very disappointed for not getting selected and announced his retirement immediately, but made a comeback in August to play domestic cricket.
3. Manoj Tiwary
Manoj Tiwary (Source – Twitter)
Indian right-handed batter Manoj Tiwary has performed very well in domestic cricket but failed to contribute enough for the national side. He announced his retirement on August 3, 2023, but soon came out of it after 5 days. He also revealed the reason behind it and said, “The decision taken by me was a sudden one. I was selfish in taking this decision as this might have hurt my family, teammates and fans,” Tiwary was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.