It is a matter of pride for all the players to retire from Test cricket playing for their country. Sending off a retired player with a farewell match can be said to be the best and best thing for a team. There have been some players in world cricket who had to retire without playing the last match after making a great contribution to Test cricket.
There have been many players who said goodbye to the format from off the field, while according to his popularity and workrate, he definitely deserved a farewell match. Saying goodbye to the game without a final match after a great performance cannot be said to be an ideal farewell, but it has been seen many times with some players.
There are also many players from Indian cricket who announced their retirement without playing the last Test match of their career, while they could have made the career memorable by retiring by playing the last match. So, today in this article, we take a look at 3 Indian players who deserved a farewell Test match.
Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag, hailing from Delhi, would have never imagined that his Test career would ended like how it ended. Virender Sehwag, who set many records while playing Test cricket for the country for 12 years, had to retire without playing the last Test.
He scored two triple centuries in Test cricket and is the only Indian to do so. Sehwag, who scored 8586 runs in his career, had the highest score of 319 runs and he deserved to play the farewell match but he did not get it and had to announce his retirement from off the field.
Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir used to open for the Indian team along with Virender Sehwag. Gambhir, who made his international debut in 2004, quietly said goodbye to the game in 2018. In his career spanning fifteen years, he made invaluable contributions to Test cricket.
He scored 4154 runs in the longest format of the game and left some wonderful memories. He announced his retirement without a farewell match in 2018, two years after playing the last Test in November 2016.
MS Dhoni
Hailing from a small Indian state of Jharkhand, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni) was a diamond for the Indian team. He was the most successful captain for India in Test cricket. He made his Test debut in 2005. Apart from captaining India in this format, he scored 4876 runs in 90 matches.
However, in the middle of the Test series against Australia in 2014, he surprised everyone by announcing his retirement. After the Boxing Day Test match ended in a draw on the final day, a BCCI press release was made Dhoni’s decision of announcing his retirement. He did not play a further part in the series as Virat Kohli took the captaincy for the last match.