Virender Sehwag retires from International cricket

The flamboyant Virender Sehwag, one of the world's most destructive batsmen to have played the game, today announced his retirement from international cricket and the Indian Premier league bringing an end to an illustrious career spanning over a decade.

Sehwag, celebrating 37th birthday today, had already hinted about his imminent retirement at a function in Dubai yesterday and he took barely a few hours to make it official.

"I hereby retire from all forms of international cricket and from the Indian Premier league," Sehwag tweeted.

The decision comes after Sehwag signed up to play in the next year's Masters Champions league 2020, where only retired cricketers can play.

Sehwag was unveiled at the launch ceremony of the veterans 2020 league in Dubai.

Sehwag's decision comes barely a few days after one of his contemporaries Zaheer Khan decided to call time on his career. Sehwag had not been in the Indian team since 2013 and had not been in the reckoning either.

In a glorious international career spanning over 12 years, Sehwag played 104 Tests scoring 8586 runs at an impressive average of 49.34, hitting 23 centuries and 32 half-centuries.

He is the only triple centurion in Tests for India having scored a career-best knock of 319 against Pakistan at Multan, which also is an Indian record. He is also one of those rare batsmen to have scored two triple tons with his next one (309) coming against South Africa.

In 251 ODIs, he accumulated 8273 runs at an average of 35.05 and scored 15 hundreds apart from hitting 38 fifties.

In 19 Twenty20 Internationals, he managed 394 runs with two half-centuries.

He has been a part of two World Cup winning teams under Mahendra Singh Dhoni's leadership --- 2007 World T20 in South Africa and the ICC ODI World Cup in India.