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India batter Saurabh Tiwary has announced his retirement from professional cricket and will feature in his final match for Jharkhand against Jamshedpur on February 15 in the Ranji Trophy.
Tiwary started playing cricket at the age of 11, in the 2006-07 Ranji season Tiwari made his first-class debut as a teenager. He went on to win the Under-19 World Cup under the leadership of Virat Kohli in Malaysia in 2008. He continued to soar high with his performances for Mumbai Indians in 2010. He went on to score 419 runs which allowed him to earn a call-up for the India team for the Asian Cup. But he had to wait till October 2010 to make his international debut. The left-handed batter went on to play three ODIs for the Men in Blue, amassed 49 runs and stayed unbeaten in the two of them. Tiwary's true potential came out in domestic cricket where he played 115 games in a career that lasted for 17 years. "It's a little tough to bid farewell to this journey that I had started before my schooling. But I'm also sure that this is the right time for this. I feel that if you're not in the national team and IPL, it's better to vacate a spot in the state side for a youngster. Youngsters are getting a lot of chances in our Test team so I'm making this decision," Tiwary said on Monday at a press conference as quoted from ESPNcricinfo. "It's not like I've decided this only on the basis of my performances. You can see my record in Ranji and in the last domestic season. It's always asked what I'm going to do next and for now I only know that cricket is the only thing I know so I'm going to be connected to the game. I got an offer from politics too but I haven't thought about that," Tiwary added. He is Jharkhand's leading run scorer with 8030 runs to his name in 189 innings at an average of 47.51. His remarkable tally includes 22 tons and 34 half-centuries, which keeps him ahead of India's former skipper MS Dhoni's tally of 7038 runs in 131 games. Tiwary's time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was filled with ups and downs. After he guided MI to their first final, he was secured by Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011 (RCB) where he failed to replicate the success that he achieved with MI. In the coming years, a shoulder injury ruled him out of the 2014 season with Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Rising Pune Supergiant(2016) for a year each. He returned to Mumbai Indians in 2021 at the age of 31 and had a couple of strong outings win the season. He ends his IPL career with a total of 1494 runs at an average of 28.73 and a strike rate of 120. Overall, he has scored 3454 T20 runs with 16 fifties at an average of 29.02 and a strike rate of 122.17. Tiwary also captained Jharkhand 88 times across all formats and won 36, lost 33 and drew 19. (ANI)
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