Harbhajan Singh announces retirement, likely to take up Coaching role for an IPL franchise
At the age of 41, Harbhajan Singh has retired from all forms of cricket. The former Indian off-spinner announced this on his Twitter account on Thursday.
Harbhajan is reportedly set to pursue to a new career in IPL 2022 as he likely to join a IPL franchise as part of their coaching staff.
Harbhajan Singh's last Test match was against Sri Lanka in 2015, the year when he played his last ODI match as well. A year later, he featured for the last time for India in the T20I format against the UAE team. He has amassed a massive 418 wickets in 103 Test matches, he has also bagged 269 wickets in 238 ODIs and 25 wickets in 26 T20 matches.
All good things come to an end and today as I bid adieu to the game that has given me everything in life, I would like to thank everyone who made this 23-year-long journey beautiful and memorable.
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) December 24, 2021
My heartfelt thank you 🙏 Grateful .https://t.co/iD6WHU46MU
Apart from playing for the country, he has also played for multiple IPL franchises. Most recently he was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise, where he got to play only three matches, that too during the first phase, while had to sit out the 2nd phase.
He played three matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore but did not take any wickets. After that, he didn't feature for the team in the phase 2 of the event.
Citing sources close to Harbhajan Singh, the news agency PTI claimed that the legendary spinner would share his experience as a consultant, mentor or member of an advisory group for an IPL team.
Harbhajan will also give valuable advice on which cricketer should be taken from the auction. Harbhajan has spent most of his IPL career playing for Mumbai Indians. Harbhajan has played 160 matches and taken 150 wickets in the IPL.
Harbhajan Singh's big role in players' development for Kolkata Knight Riders
While at the Kolkata Knight Riders, Harbhajan played a vital role in young Varun Chakravarthy's performance, Venkatesh Iyer also spoke about how Harbhajan encouraged him before taking the field for the Knights.
In the last IPL, KKR coach Brendon McCullum and captain Eoin Morgan also held regular consultations with Harbhajan regarding team formation. Though it has not been announced yet which team Harbhajan will be associated with in the upcoming IPL, it is heard that talks with one team have progressed a lot.