Pragyan Ojha retires from international and first-class cricket

Pragyan Ojha, the former India spinner, announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket on Friday. Having played close to 50 international games for the country across formats, the left-arm spinner last played for India way back in 2013 during Sachin Tendulkar’s testimonial Test against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium.

After impressing in age-group cricket and domestic circuit, Ojha made his international debut in 2008 when he was called up for the first time for the tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan. In the following year, he made his Test debut too against Sri Lanka and formed a good partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ojha was the front-runner as India’s left-arm spinner but he soon fell down the pecking order after the emergence of Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja started impressing in Tests and formed a formidable partnership with Ashwin as he replaced Ojha in the team across formats. Having started his career in the domestic circuit with Hyderabad, Ojha played for Bengal and Bihar too.

In 2018, he played his last game in Ranji Trophy which came for Bihar. He took to Twitter to announce his decision. Posting a picture of a letter in which he talked about his cricket career, Ojha wrote, “It’s time I move on to the next phase of my life. The love and support of each and every individual will always remain with me and motivate me all the time”.

Career in numbers:

In international cricket, Pragyan Ojha played 24 Tests, 18 ODIs and 6 T20Is for India. He picked up 113 Test wickets, 21 ODI wickets and 10 T20I wickets. In first-class cricket, he played 108 games and took a total of 424 wickets at an average of less than 29. The left-arm spinner also boasts of more than 100 wickets in List A and T20 games.

Ojha also made his mark in the Indian Premier League. He played for the now-defunct Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians in the league. He was an integral part of the Deccan Chargers team that won the title in 2009. He played 92 games in IPL with the last appearance coming in 2015 for Mumbai Indians.