New Delhi: India’s one of the most skilful leg-spinners, Amit Mishra, on Thursday, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after a career that spanned 25 years on September 4.
Mishra made his debut in 2003 just after the conclusion of the 2003 ODI World Cup, but had to wait for five years for another chance. The 42-year-old spinner was unable to find consistency and failed to remain in contention for the Indian team set-up throughout his career.
When Mishra made his debut, India had two established, experienced spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. The presence of the ace spin pair hampered his chance to break into the team. After a humiliating loss in the 2007 ODI World Cup, Kumble bade farewell to the white-ball format and a year later from the red-ball format.
Indian selectors handed the captaincy to MS Dhoni, and the team went into a transition phase from 2007 onwards.
In going to play the first-ever T20 World Cup, Mishra was ignored again, and the young Piyush Chawla got a chance ahead of him in ODIs and T20Is. Chawla kept performing well to keep his place safe in the Indian set-up.
Mishra’s breakthrough IPL season came in 2008, including a hat-trick. In return, he got rewarded with a comeback in the ODI set-up in the Tri-series in 2008 and also made his debut in Test cricket. He picked up a five-wicket haul in the debut Test against Australia. The veteran also got a place in the squad of India’s Champion Trophy squad in 2009.
The leg-spinner then got a run in international cricket consistently from 2008 to 2011. But during that period, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Chawla emerged as the team’s next frontline spinners. Harbhajan was also in the fray for selection along with other part-time spinners.
Ashwin, Chawla and Harbhajan recieved the nod ahead of Mishra for the ODI World Cup 2011. With both Ashwin and Chawla playing key roles in India’s historic World Cup triumph, Mishra was again sidelined from the set-up.
With his exceptional performance in IPL 2013, where he scalped 21 wickets in 17 matches, more than India’s frontline spinners Ashwin and Jadeja, Mishra was again called up by the selectors and got a decent run and backing from the skipper and selectors.
Mishra played a key role in India’s campaign in the T20 World Cup 2014, where they finished as finalists in the tournament. Mishra was the highest wicket-taker for his side. The batting skills of Ashwin and Jadeja always took them one step ahead of the skilful leg-spinners, as it was impossible to play three spinners in the same game.
He got multiple chances in the team from 2013 to 2016, where only twice, he finished his spell wicketless.
In his last ODI series, he scalped 18 wickets against New Zealand, which is a record of having the most wickets in a five-ODI match series till now. But the fortunes were never on his side, and he played his last international match in 2017, and after that, he never got the opportunity to play again in the Indian jersey.
Amit Mishra’s records
Mishra is the only spinner to take a hat-trick in all three formats. The veteran cricketer is the only bowler in the history of IPL to bag three hat-tricks.
He also recorded the most wickets in a five-match ODI bilateral series as he took 18 wickets against New Zealand in his last ODI series of his career. Mishra was also among the sixth Indians to take a five-for in their Test debut against Australia.