Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga has decided to hang up his boots in T20I cricket, bringing an end to a glorious international career on Tuesday.
Taking to Twitter, the 38-year-old tweeted, “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.”
Malinga had played 30 Test matches, 226 ODIs and 84 T20Is for Sri Lanka, scalping a total of 546 international wickets in his fantastic career.
He last featured for his national side in a T20I match against West Indies in Pallekele in March 2020.
In a glorious international career, Malinga experienced some incredible highs representing the Sri Lankan national team. Malinga led his side to glory in the 2014 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
A fearsome pacer known for his menacing yorkers, Malinga is the leading wicket-taker in T20I cricket with his 107 scalps. Malinga also has two T20I hat-tricks to his name.
Malinga also picked up three hat-tricks in ODI cricket, with his performance against South Africa in the 2007 World Cup in West Indies etched in history. Malinga retired from Test cricket in 2011, to work on his fitness and concentrate on the shorter formats of the game.
Although he had already retired from Test cricket in 2011 and ODIs in 2019 but continued to play T20Is for Sri Lanka.
In his 30 Tests, Malinga picked 101 wickets, averaging 33.16.
He bagged 338 and 107 wickets in ODIs and T20Is, averaging 28.87 and 20.79 respectively.
Notably, Malinga is the only player in the history of the game to have taken four wickets off four consecutive deliveries in an ODI and has four international hat-tricks to his name.