Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath announces retirement from ODI and T20I cricket

Veteran Sri Lankan left-arm spinner Rangana Herath has announced his retirement from One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Secretary Mohan Silva said. Herath had prior to the World T20 2016 expressed his desire to retire from the shorter formats of the game following their campaign in the mega even. Despite retiring from limited overs cricket he wishes to render his services to the team in Test cricket.

He has featured in 71 ODIs for Sri Lanka, recording 74 dismissals with an average of 31.91 and a strike rate of 43.8. His best bowling figures are 4/20 and boasts of a career economy of 4.37. In the shortest format he represented the Lankans in 17 matches and grabbed 18 dismissals with the best performance of 5/3 against New Zealand in 2014 which is also one of the best bowling figures in T20I cricket. Herath also maintained a decent economy of 6.13 despite the format being tough at the bowlers.

The left-arm spinner was not just an economical bowler but would always look for wickets and that is what makes his stand out. After Muttiah Muralitharan’s retirement from all formats of the game, Sri Lanka have heavily relied on him to give the team the spinning edge and he has done that with some consistency. Thus far in his career Herath has played 67 Tests and has accounted for 297 wickets with the best innings figures of 9/127 and the best match figures of 14/184. He has picked up 23 five-wicket hauls and five 10-wicket hauls in his Test career.

The Sri Lankan team is in transition and Herath’s decision to continue playing Tests will definitely give them some more grace period to pick players from their domestic pool and setup a new team that can take their cricket ahead.

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