look news india
Wellington, May 10 (HS). New Zealand's aggressive batsman Colin Munro has announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect on Friday. This aggressive batsman from New Zealand has scored more than 3000 runs in international cricket. He has not played for the national team for the last four years. He recently played his last T20 match against India in 2020.
The left-handed player made his T20 International debut in December 2012 and made his ODI debut the following month. He has played only one Test in his career, which was played in January 2013, as he was considered primarily a white-ball specialist. Overall, he represented New Zealand 123 times across all formats (65 T20Is, 57 ODIs and 1 Test) and scored over 3000 runs, along with taking 7 wickets. Munro finished his international career as the current sixth all-time leading T20 run scorer for New Zealand, with 1,724 runs at an average of 31 and a strike-rate of 156.4, including three T20 International centuries.
Munro is the only New Zealand batsman to score three centuries in T20Is. He was also part of the T20 World Cup squads in 2014 and 2016 and the team that finished runner-up in the ODI World Cup in 2019. The veteran batsman has been playing in franchise cricket around the world and revealed that he decided to retire after failing to get a place in the 2024 T20 World Cup squad.
“Playing for the Blackcaps has always been the biggest achievement of my playing career,” the 37-year-old player was quoted as saying by New Zealand Cricket (NZC). I have never been more proud to wear that jersey, and to be able to do that 123 times across all formats is something I will always be incredibly proud of. Although it has been a long time since my last appearance, I never lost hope that I could bounce back on the strength of my franchise T20 form. “Now is the right time to officially close that chapter with the announcement of the Blackcaps squad for the T20 World Cup.”
NZC chief executive Scott Weenink praised Munro, describing him as one of the pioneers of the 360-degree style of batting.
“Munro was one of our first players to adopt the aggressive, 360-degree style of batting that is now accepted as best practice around the world,” he said, “He was one of the pioneers of the new game, an innovative Batsman who took risk-taking to a new level and revolutionized the way short-form cricket was played. We thank him for his amazing contribution to over a hundred international games and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”