Harbhajan Singh has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, bringing end to a 23-year career.
Harbhajan bagged 417 wickets in 103 Test matches. Of his many career highs, the most significant was in the 2001/02 series against Australia at home. He took 32 wickets when none of his teammates took more than three. He took 13 wickets at Kolkata – including the first ever Test match hat-trick by an Indian – and 15 more at Chennai, where he also hit the winning runs to seal a famous win. He also scored 2,224 Test runs.
He also had 269 wickets in 236 ODIs, 25 wickets in 28 T20Is, and 150 wickets in 163 IPL matches across 13 seasons.
Harbhajan confirmed his decision on his YouTube channel while donning his India blazer: ‘Today, I am announcing my retirement from all forms of the game. Though informally, I had taken retirement before but couldn't announce it. I have not been playing active cricket for a while but due to commitments with KKR, I have wanted to stay with them. I had already decided to retire. Like every other cricketer, I wanted to say goodbye to this game in the Indian jersey but fate probably had something else in mind.
‘My journey from the streets of Jalandhar to the Indian team has been spectacular. I have never had the sort of motivation that I did when I was wearing the India jersey,’ he continued.
All good things come to an end and today as I bid adieu to the game that has given me everything in life, I would like to thank everyone who made this 23-year-long journey beautiful and memorable.
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) December 24, 2021
My heartfelt thank you 🙏 Grateful .https://t.co/iD6WHU46MU
Harbhajan last featured for India in a T20I against UAE, in 2016. Since then, he has been restricted to domestic cricket. He continued to play in the IPL, representing Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in the last five years.