Sangakkara To Retire After 2nd Test Against India

Sangakkara To Retire After 2nd Test Against India: The Sri Lankan Legendary batsman Kumar Sangakkara, has announced that he would retire from international cricket after the second Test against India. In a special press conference hosted after the third day’s play of the ongoing second Test against Pakistan, the 37-year old, made an official announcement to quit the longest format, ending rumors over his retirement.

Sangakkara will now be playing the first off the 3 Test matches at home vs India and will be seen missing final test match against Pakistan in the current series.

It was reported that Sanga, who represents Surrey in England’s County season, will decide to retire after the first Test of the upcoming series against India but Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews confirmed that the team was not happy with his decision.

“I’ve had the time of my life playing for Sri Lanka,” Sangakkara said. “It has been a great honour. Growing up as a kid watching players like Aravinda de Silva play for Sri Lanka and then one day to get a chance to play with them.”

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing every format but donning the whites for Sri Lanka has been a different feeling altogether. There have been so many ups and downs. I’ve had bad days as well but the good times outweigh the bad. I know, it’s disappointing to say goodbye to something you’ve done for over 15 years but I know this is the right time to leave.” said Kumar Sangakkara.

Sangakkara, who made his Test debut in 2000 against South African at Galle holds several records in Test Cricket at the moment. His tally of 12305 Test runs (as of the day he announced his retirement) maked him the highest run-getter for Sri Lanka in the longest format of Cricket. Sangakkara also has 11 Test match double centuries to his name, only one behind Sir Don Bradman’s tally of 12 200+ scores and currently stands only behind Steven Smith in the ICC Test Rankings for batsmen.

He retired from the shortest format of the game, T20Is after guiding Sri Lanka to World T20 title in 2014 which held in Bangladesh and retired from the ODI format after the 50-over World Cup, a tournament, Sangakkara in which he scored a record of four consecutive hundreds. He was requested by the board to play till the Indian series in a bid to facilitate a smooth transition to the new era of Sri Lankan cricket.