Thyagarajan retires from USA duty

Batsman Aditya Thyagarajan has announced his retirement from international cricket following USA's fifth place finish at ICC WCL Division Three in Malaysia in October.

Thyagarajan, 36, first delivered the news last month through a post on social media.

"The most important thing is that with my current performance and form, my skills and game, I don't think I deserve a place in the eleven," Thyagarajan told ESPNcricinfo. "In the middle I think there are people who can do better than me. Also, I'm not able to get back to the fitness that I always had because of the knee injury. I wasn't able to motivate myself to be as fit as I wanted to be afterward."

Thyagarajan suffered a freak knee injury against Denmark in Hong Kong at ICC WCL Division Three in January 2011. After going down with a sprained left ankle while fielding earlier in the match, Thyagarajan tried to compensate for the initial injury by putting more weight on his right leg while batting in the second innings. He wound up dislocating his right knee while attempting to play a shot and missed the next 18 months while trying to rehabilitate.

He struggled to get back to the player he was prior to the injury, playing just two more tournaments for USA, both in Malaysia at Division Four in 2012 and the most recent Division Three.

Prior to the injury, Thyagarajan was one of USA's most dependable batsmen and was their leading scorer in 2010, notching two centuries and three fifties in 50-over cricket as well as a then US T20 record 72 not out against Ireland at the World T20 Qualifier in Abu Dhabi. He set a world record stand for the seventh wicket in that match with Orlando Baker as the pair produced an unbeaten 99-run partnership after USA had been reduced to 25 for 6.

His most memorable feat came later that year when he rescued USA from 17 for 5 against Argentina at Division Four in Italy, scoring an unbeaten 102 in a win for USA.

"The success I had for USA was solely possible because of unending support from [former coach] Clayton Lambert and [captain] Steve Massiah," Thyagarajan said. "The position I was batting at six and seven is where you need extreme support from coaching staff and captain because you don't have much time to settle in. These guys had confidence that I could always go and express myself even if we were 17 for 5."

The middle order batsman ends his career 61 runs short of becoming just the fourth US player to break the 1000 run barrier in 50-over cricket, ending on 939 at an average of 36.12 in 46 official 50-over matches beginning in 2008.