|| India Correspondent ||
Team India pace bowler Vinay Kumar has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Friday. The experienced player has played alongside great players like Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in his career and felt lucky as well.
"Today "Davangere Express" after running for 25 years and passing so many stations of cricketing life, has finally arrived to a station called "retirement". With a lot of mixed emotions, I Vinay Kumar R hereby announce my retirement from international and first-class cricket. It is not an easy decision to make, however, there comes a time in every sportsperson's life where one has to call it a day," Vinay Kumar took to Twitter and shared this.
"My cricketing experience has been enriched by playing under the great minds of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma to name the few. Also, I was blessed to have Sachin Tendulkar as a mentor in Mumbai Indians," the pacer again shared.
"I have been fortunate enough to represent my country at the highest level and give it all I had to this beautiful game. My journey has been filled with many moments that I will cherish lifelong. I came to Bangalore from Davangere to pursue my dreams. I am very grateful to Karnataka State Cricket Association for giving me the opportunity to represent the state team. From here I went on to play for India and represented the nation in all the formats of the game," he further added.
The veteran had played for India in all three formats of the game. In his cricketing career, he had played 1 Test, 31 ODIs and 9 T20Is where he managed to claim 49 wickets across all formats. His best bowling figures came in the ODI format where he finished with the figures of 4/30 against England in Delhi way back in 2011.
However, he also played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Kochi Tuskers Kerela in the cash-rich Indian Premier League. He also led Karnataka to two successive Ranji Trophy titles in 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons as well. Notably, he had played his 100th match in the Ranji Trophy in November 2018 too.