The 27-year-old pace bowler, Mohammad Amir has announced sudden retirement from Test cricket on Friday. It was a career of ups and downs for the premier fast bowler.
He made his Test debut for Pakistan as a 17-year-old bowler in 2009 and played 14 Tests taking 51 wickets. Amir was involved in the match-fixing scandal against England in 2010 and was banned for five years for bowling a no-ball intentionally. After his Test return in 2016, Amir took 68 wickets from 22 matches at an average of 31.51.
From the beginning of 2018, the premier fast bowler Amir has taken so far 24 wickets in six Test matches at an average of 21.00. In the 36 matches, he played for Pakistan, the fast bowler took 119 wickets. He took 5 wickets in an innings of a Test four-time while he did not pick 10 wickets in a match zero times.
In the recently concluded ICC World Cup 2019, Mohammad Amir was the pick of bowlers for Pakistan with 17 wickets from 8 matches ( 8 innings) with best figures of 5/30 against Australia at Taunton. He played a key role in helping Pakistan win the Champions Trophy 2017 after picking 3 important wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar, and Virat Kohli to put the Indian team under pressure.
He said, “it was an honour to represent Pakistan at the highest and traditional form of the game. However, I have decided to move away from the longer version of the game so that I can focus on the white ball”.
He was not selected in the initial 15-man squad for the World Cup squad. But after poor performances of the Pakistan team during the series against England in May, the Pakistani selectors decided to pick him in the squad.
Amir bowled with great control and was superb with his line which made life tough for the batsmen. With the ICC World Test championship coming up, with Pakistan having top quality fast bowlers, Amir decided to retire from Test cricket.
Amir played his last Test match for Pakistan in January 2019 at Johannesburg where the visitors lost badly. He took 4 wickets in that match.
With the World T20 2020 coming up, the Pakistani fans would be hoping to see Amir bowl at his best and come up with the best performance.
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