Ab de Villiers
In a surprising decision on May 23, South Africa's star batsman AB de Villiers announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect. The right-handed batsman played 114 Test matches, 228 ODIs and 78 T20 internationals for South Africa and scored over 20,000 runs for his country.
De Villiers made the announcement on Twitter by posting a video message for the fans. Elaborating on his decision, de Villiers said he was "tired" and "running out to gas", and thought it was the right time to move on. The decision has come just four days after he played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 11.
Alastair Cook
Former England captain and opener Alastair Cook on September 3 announced his retirement from international cricket following his team's series triumph over No1-ranked Indian Test team in Southampton.
Cook endured a lean summer at the top of the order for England, averaging only 15.57 in seven innings against India. But he achieved a unique feat of making a fifty and a hundred in both his debut and final Test match. He also surpassed Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara to become the fifth highest Test run scorer of all time.
Dwayne Bravo
West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo made a sudden announcement of his retirement from international cricket. He, however, will continue to play T20 franchise cricket all over the world. At 35 years of age, Bravo has mostly been out of the international West Indies side due to numerous issues with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Gautam Gambhir
India opener and hero of India's 2011 World Cup final against Sri Lanka, Gautam Gambhir on December 4 announced his retirement from all formats of the game. Gambhir last played for India in Tests against England in November 2016. While his last appearance in ODIs was against the same opponents in January 2013 while in T20Is against Pakistan in December 2012. Gambhir made the announcement via a video message which was posted on his social media accounts.
In other major goodbyes, Rangana Herath, Mitchell Johnson, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood bid farewell to all forms of cricket, as did Niall O'Brien, Ed Joyce, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, S Badrinath, Abdur Rehman and Nick Compton.