5 players who retired at very young age from Test format

Traditionally speaking, Test cricket is a format which has witnessed players enjoying stints which have spanned a lengthy stretch of their professional career. The nature of the five-day format is such that it demands quite a lot from cricketers; be it technical prowess, mental strength, or adapting to different conditions, all over the course of one game, even multiple times on occasions.  

However, there have also been plenty of examples of talented cricketers who have called time on the format. There have been multiple reasons for them to do so. Their retirements from the format have undeniably left the cricket fraternity wondering about the untapped potential they might have realized.

5 players who retired young from Tests

5. Morne Morkel (33 years)

Morne Morkel was an out-and-out fast bowler who became the fourth South African to cross the 300-wicket mark. For a long time, the tall pacer used to serve as a first-change to Dale Steyn and the rest of the pacers who stayed for a bit during Morne's initial career, like Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini.

It wasn't as if Morkel was purely a Test cricketer. He was also a regular in the Proteas' ODI and T20I bowling line-ups. It is suspected that a nine-month-long absence due to a back problem starting from March 2017 led him to consider retiring from all forms of international cricket after featuring 86 games for the Rainbow Nation. The former tall pacer now serves as the bowling coach for the Indian men's team.