Chris Rogers will retire from Test cricket after the final Ashes match against England, becoming the third Australia player to end his international career on the tour. The 37-year-old opening batsman said on Tuesday he will take a break from the sport after the Ashes and consider whether to continue playing at domestic level.
“I’m 38 this month and I feel old,” Rogers said, “and there’s other things to do in life as well. That’s important. “I’ve been lucky enough to play cricket as a living for nearly 20 years and it’s been amazing and a privilege but everything comes to an end.”
Rogers has five test centuries — the most recent coming in the second test at lord’s. During that test, he was hit on the helmet by a short ball from England paceman James Anderson, forcing Rogers to retire hurt after a bout of dizziness.
“Health is obviously the most important thing, but I guess when you get to 37, 38, you’re starting to wonder whether your reflexes are slowing down,” Rogers said. “I’ve just been hit in the head a few too many times for my liking of late. And facing (Australia teammates) Mitch Johnson and Mitch Starc in the nets isn’t my definition of fun, so I think I’m well aware that Father Time is probably calling.”‘want to go for 4-1’
Stuart Broad confesses: “People have been walking past me in the street doing that face. It makes me a bit self-conscious. But I certainly didn’t plan it. It was just genuine amazement.”
The face. Surely everybody has seen the face by now. It is a face of sheer childlike disbelief, as Ben Stokes plucks a catch out of thin air at gully. In no time at all, Broad’s wide eyes were lighting up the internet, as everyone from the England footballer Theo Walcott to the lancashire Under-12s almost copied the look.
It was the defining image of a glorious first morning at Trent Bridge, in which Australia were routed like a pub team: 60 all out, the Ashes all but gone. And perhaps, one day, it will come to define an entire era of English cricket: an era of unadulterated fun, that recognises no limits.
In the short term, England’s relaxation has taken rather more conventional form. After a week off to recover from Trent Bridge, the squad reassembled at the Oval yesterday ahead of the fifth Investec Test starting on Thursday. An extra day’s training has been scheduled, and Cook rang each member of the team personally last week to emphasise the importance of ending the series on a high.
“That’s the big carrot: 4-1,” Broad says. “Sitting at Trent Bridge on Saturday night, it was very much relief — we’ve won it, what a feeling, soak it in. But Cooky called us all on Tuesday. It was the middle of our week off, but the captain was sat on his farm thinking about it. Australia are a ruthless team when they get on top of you, and we want to have that same tag about us.”
England will surely start as favourites, notwithstanding a dead pitch or a resurgent Australian side seeking to give outgoing captain Michael Clarke a fitting farewell. Broad has his own ideas on what might constitute a fitting farewell, having dismissed Michael Clarke more than any other Test bowler. “like, 11 times or something,” he grins.Jonathan liew ,DT