6. FAREWELL GENTLEMEN
If 1930 is referred to as the year which experienced the ‘Great Economic Depression’, 2015 will go down in history as the year of retirements. As many as 22 cricketers have retired from international cricket in some format or the other this year, of who many are no less than stalwarts. While some like Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Shane Watson have hung up their boots in a particular format, others such as Kumar Sangakkara, Michael Clarke and Virender Sehwag have left the international circuit altogether. The youngsters will need to pick up the baton from the seniors’ as early as they can and fill the large boots left by their predecessors.
The cricketers who have called it a day in 2015 are Michael Clarke (all formats), Kumar Sangakkara (all formats), Shahid Afridi (ODIs), Zaheer Khan (all formats), Virender Sehwag (all formats), Jonathan Trott (all formats), Shane Watson (Tests), Brendon Taylor (all formats), Ryan Harris (all formats), Mitchell Johnson (all formats), Daniel Vettori (all formats), Brad Haddin (all formats), Chris Rogers (all formats), Shoaib Malik (Tests), Aakash Chopra (all formats), Mahela Jayawardene (all formats), Misbah-ul-Haq (ODIs), Younus Khan (ODIs), Ian Bell (ODIs), Chris Tremelett (all formats), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (all formats) and Kyle Mills (all formats).