The yorker king Lasith Malinga announced his T20 retirement on September 14, 2021(Tuesday). The aggressive yorker specialist has been an integral part of the Mumbai Indians since IPL 2008 and plays a key role in four of 5 trophy-winning finals.
Malinga opt-out of the IPL 2020 amid personal reasons and announces his retirement from franchise cricket in January 2021.
Lasith Malinga Retired from T20 Cricket
On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan pace ace confirmed that he is retiring from competitive cricket. He took to Twitter to announce his decision along with a farewell video.
“Hanging up my #T20 shoes and #retiring from all forms of cricket! Thankful to all those who supported me in my journey, and looking forward to sharing my experience with young cricketers in the years to come,” the 38-year-old had tweeted on Tuesday.
Hanging up my #T20 shoes and #retiring from all forms of cricket! Thankful to all those who supported me in my journey, and looking forward to sharing my experience with young cricketers in the years to come.https://t.co/JgGWhETRwm #LasithMalinga #Ninety9
— Lasith Malinga (@ninety9sl) September 14, 2021
“Today is a very special day for me. I want to thank each one of you who have supported me throughout my T20 career. Today I have decided to give 100 per cent rest to my T20 bowling shoes,” he said.
“I want to thank Sri Lanka cricket board, Mumbai Indians, Melbourne Stars, Kent Cricket Club, Rangpur Riders, Guyana Warriors, Maratha Warriors and Montreal Tigers. I now want to share my experience with young cricketers who want to play franchise cricket and for their national team”.
Malinga was the captain and kingpin amongst Sri Lanka’s pantheon that lifted the 2014 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. He ends his career as the most prolific T20I bowler for Sri Lanka in the T20WCs and second overall. He has also taken the third most wickets in the ODI World Cups – 56.
ICC Shares Tribute Video
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday took to Instagram to share a tribute to the “Yorker King”. The video shows a montage of Malinga’s best yorkers, delivered with that iconic slinging action. “King of the Yorker,” ICC captioned its video for the right-hand pacer.
View this post on Instagram
He had retired from Tests in 2011 and later retired from ODIs in July 2019. The 38-year-old played 30 Tests, 226 ODIs, and 84 T20Is for Sri Lanka in which he picked 546 wickets (101 in Tests, 338 in ODIs, and 107 in T20Is) across formats.
Malinga remains the highest wicket-taker in the T20 Internationals, although Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is just one wicket away from equaling his record.
Malinga and Shakib remain the only two bowlers to have taken more than 100 wickets in the shortest format of the international game.
