Left-handed batter Saurabh Tiwary has announced his decision to retire from all forms of cricket. Tiwary, a U19 World Cup winner, will play his last match in the Ranji Trophy for his side Jharkhand on February 15. The Southpaw has played for several IPL franchises too but his last game came in 2021 for the Mumbai Indians.
Tiwary confirmed his decision to retire in a press conference. "It's a little tough to bid farewell to this journey that I had started before my schooling. But I'm also sure that this is the right time for this. I feel that if you're not in the national team and IPL, it's better to vacate a spot in the state side for a youngster. Youngsters are getting a lot of chances in our Test team so I'm making this decision," he said at Jamshedpur's Keenan Stadium in a press conference.
"It's not like I've decided this only on the basis of my performances. You can see my record in Ranji and in the last domestic season. It's always asked what I'm going to do next and for now I only know that cricket is the only thing I know so I'm going to be connected to the game. I got an offer from politics too but I haven't thought about that," the Southpaw added.
Tiwary's last match of his career will be Jharkhand's final game of the Ranji Trophy 2024 against Rajasthan in Group A. His team has won just one match in the ongoing domestic tournament and have failed to stand any chance of reaching the quarterfinal.
The 34-year-old Tiwary has won the U19 World Cup and was part of Virat Kohli's batch of 2008. He made his India debut in October 2010 following impressive performances for Mumbai Indians and Jharkhand in the early part of the same year. However, he could have got only three matches for India in ODIs before he failed to don the Indian jersey again.
He played for four IPL franchises - Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian cash-rich league. He has scored 1494 runs in IPL and 3454 in overall T20 cricket.
In domestic cricket, Tiwary has been a mainstay for Jharkhand. He was part of 115 first-class matches and scored 8030 runs across 17 years at an average of 47.51. He has 22 hundreds and 34 fifties to his name as well. The Southpaw has scored the most runs for Jharkhand and is ahead of even MS Dhoni, who made 7038 runs for the state.
