Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis announces retirement from all forms of cricket

Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis has decided to bring curtains down on his cricketing career. He is aged 34 and could’ve played for a few more years but not getting picked for the national team must have left him disappointed. He last played for Sri Lanka back in 2015 and since then has been plying his trade in the domestic cricket.

Mendis played 19 Tests, 87 One-Day Internationals and 39 T20Is for the Island nation during his seven-year international career. He scalped 70 wickets with the red ball while also adding 218 wickets to his name in the ODIs and T20Is. Mendis had become a sensation at the international level after making his debut. He picked 8 wickets on his Test debut and went on to scalp three and four wickets in his first ODI and T20I respectively.

Many had touted him to replace the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of wicket-taking ability. But as the years progressed, he faded away even as the oppositions started picking his variations.

Only bowler to pick two six-wicket hauls in T20Is

Ajantha Mendis will end his cricketing career as the only bowler to have picked two six-wicket hauls in T20 Internationals. The news of his retirement was confirmed by BBC Sinhala. It has been a sad ending to what should’ve been an illustrious career for Mendis.

Not that the spinner was away from the game for a long time. He played his last domestic game for Police Sports Club and could pick only a wicket in the match. With no hopes of returning to Sri Lanka side across any format, Ajantha Mendis might have decided to call it quits from the sport.

Sri Lanka has also moved on from him with the likes of Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Embuldeniya and Dilruwan Perera among others making it to the national team. It will be interesting to see if the board felicitates him in the near future like it did for Nuwan Kulasekara.

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