Cricketers who retired from the game in 2015

16. Mitchell Johnson- All formats:

An express bowler whose career had many highs and lows, Mitchell Johnson at his best was as fearsome a fast bowler as any to have graced the game. During 2013-14 in successive series, he troubled the batsmen of England and South Africa with his speed and aggression. In those eight Tests, he collected 59 wickets and got he got his first Allan Border Medal. At the age of 32 he achieved the sort of feats that were expected by Australia. He played 73 Tests picking up 313 wickets and scoring 2065 handy runs batting lower down the order. He has a Test hundred and 11 fifties. His best spell in an innings is 8/61 and that in a match is 12/127. He picked up 239 wickets from 153 ODIs and 38 wickets from 30 T20Is. He played his last international match against New Zealand in the 2015 Perth Test match.

17. Shoaib Malik- Tests:

The Pakistani batting all-rounder made a comeback to the Test team, scored a double-hundred in the first Test of the series against England and shockingly announced his retirement from the longest format of the game during the third and final match of the same series. His comeback was after a five-year exile from Test cricket lasted just 3 matches. He will continue playing the ODIs and T20Is for Pakistan. He played 35 Tests scoring 1898 runs including 3 tons and 8 fifties. His career best is 245 against the English in his final Test series.

18. Brendan Taylor- All formats:

The Zimbabwean signed a three-year Kolpak deal with Nottinghamshire which made him ineligible to play international cricket for his country. He last played international cricket in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup and scored 433 runs, a record for Zimbabwe in any World Cup. His 8 centuries in ODI’s is also a record for his country surpassing Alistair Campbell’s 7. A wonderful right-handed batsman, Taylor was also a handy wicket-keeper. He played 167 ODIs scoring 5258 runs including 8 tons and 7 fifties. He played 23 Tests and 26 T20Is scoring 1493 and 594 runs respectively.

19. Chris Tremlett- All Formats:

The big English fast bowler announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in August 2015. The 33-year-old mentioned that injuries had played a major part in his career and the major reason for him to take this decision. He admitted that his body, especially back, could not longer withstand the demands of professional cricket. Tremlett’s last Test was against the Aussies in the first Ashes Test of the 2013-14 series at Brisbane. He was an important member England’s Ashes-winning campaign in 2010-11 taking crucial wickets. He took 17 wickets in the 3 Tests he played in this series and was at his best troubling the Aussies with pace, bounce, and accuracy. He played 12 Tests taking 53 wickets and 15 ODIs taking 15 wickets. He played a solitary T20I with match figures of 2/45.

 20. Vikram Solanki- All Formats:

The former England batsman announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in September 2015.  He played in 51 one-day internationals and three Twenty20 internationals for England between 2000 and 2007. Solanki was an elegant batsman who never quite achieved the England career many had expected. He was cricket’s first super substitute during a one-day international against Australia in 2005. He scored 1097 runs in ODIs and 76 runs in T20Is. He had a successful First-Class career scoring more than 18000 runs.