35-year-old Indian women's pacer Niranjana Nagarajan announced her retirement from all forms of cricket on Monday, June 17. Nagarajan last played for India in 2016 against Sri Lanka, but her journey began much earlier. Nagarajan impressed while playing for Tamil Nadu, which earned her a call-up to the national U-21 setup in 2008. She eventually made her senior team debut against England at Bath. Throughout her career, Nagarajan donned the national colors in 38 matches across formats, including two Tests, and bagged 37 wickets. The announcement of her retirement came via her Instagram account.
"Playing cricket at a professional level has been the best thing that could have happened to me, for everything in life commenced with it," Nagarajan wrote in an Instagram post.
"Playing this game gave me a vision, ambition and reason to look forward in life. I am grateful, blessed and thankful to have played this sport for 24 years at a professional level and when I look back at it, the journey has been nothing less than beautiful and I will be carrying the lovely warm memories it gave me along the way through my life."
“Cricket has treated me more generously than I have ever dreamt of and I must recognise it when it is time to end my competitive career. This is a bittersweet decision and I had to muster a lot of courage to say this and I must admit that this was something that I never wanted to say at any given point in life. But at the outset there is so much to be happy about and I consider myself so fortunate and blessed to have played cricket across all 3 formats for my country, the highest honour I could ever ask for,” she further wrote in her Instagram post.
Niranjana Nagarajan, A Career Overview
Niranjana Nagarajan made her international debut at the age of 19 against England. Interestingly, all three formats of her international career began against England, and all three international matches were played in England. Her debut came in ODIs in 2008, followed by T20Is in 2012, and finally, Tests in 2014. Throughout her career, Nagarajan represented India in 38 matches across all three formats, claiming a total of 37 wickets. She contributed four wickets in two Tests, 24 wickets in 22 ODIs, and nine wickets in 14 T20Is. Her last international appearance was a T20I match against Sri Lanka in February 2016.
Niranjana's Shining Debut Performance
Niranjana made a remarkable debut in Test cricket, bagging four wickets in the first innings of her debut Test, skittling out England for a mere 92 runs. She further contributed with a valuable 27-run knock in the batting department. This performance propelled India to their fourth Test victory overall and their second against England. However, she was unable to replicate her wicket-taking prowess in subsequent matches following her debut.
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