6 Players who announced international retirement and then made a comeback

Momentum, form, and fitness of a player in any sport play a key role for a sportsperson during his/her career. If these three attributes fall into one place, they can help the player to prolong their career. Apart from these attributes, the backing from the senior player or the selectors provides confidence to a certain player to do well for their respective team.

In the game of cricket, several cricketers have opted to take retirement, due to the fall-out with their captain, selectors, or personal reasons. Some of them made bad decisions at that moment and realized it too late. However, few of them have returned and graced the field with their presence and displayed their superlative performances.

1. Kevin Pietersen

The flamboyant batter, Kevin Pietersen made his international debut in an ODI fixture against Zimbabwe in November 2004. A few months later, he had a terrific debut in the Test format, wherein he scored half-centuries in both the innings for England in the first Test of the 2005 Ashes. Eventually, he returned as the leading run-scorer in the series with 473 runs in 10 innings.

Pietersen led the England in Tests and ODIs in 2008-09 but resigned soon after his fall-out with the England Cricket Board (ECB). In the 2010 World Cup, he was the top scorer for the team with 248 runs in 6 innings, which helped the team to secure their first title victory. In 2012, he retired from the limited-overs cricket due to the text-message scandal and termed it a step to allow the youngsters to prepare themselves for the 2015 World Cup.

However, later in 2012, he reached an agreement with the ECB, which allowed him to return to the international team across all the formats. Pietersen last featured in England whites in the 2014 edition of Ashes. In 2018, the right-hander finally announced his retirement. In a total of 177 appearances, he scored over 13,000 runs, with 32 tons and 67 fifties.