Bagai announces retirement

Ashish Bagai, the Canada captain and wicketkeeper-batsman, has announced his retirement. Bagai, who will turn 32 next month, debuted for Canada back in 1999 as a 17-year old. He went on to represent his country for more than 14 years. His most recent assignment was the unsuccessful campaign in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE, where Canada finished 12th out of 16 teams after winning only two group games.

After the 2011 World Cup, Bagai left the team to attend business school. He was recalled in May this year for a nine-month period leading up to February 2014, after which he was to resume his career in finance. His inclusion came at a crucial time for Canada with two World Cup qualification campaigns lined up: the World T20 Qualifier and the 2015 World Cup Qualifier.

However, after the disappointing outing in the former, and less than a month before the 2015 World Cup qualifier begins in New Zealand, Bagai tweeted that he was retiring.

Bagai's ODI debut came in Canada's memorable win over Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup in Durban, a memory, he tweeted, that was his one of his favourites, along with the 2009 World Cup Qualifier, where Canada finished second behind Ireland. Bagai scored 1964 runs at an average of 37.76 in 62 ODIs, and his List A career produced 2649 runs in 96 games.

Been an honour to represent Canada over the last 15 yrs. Wish the boys all the best going forward. Will miss this game! #retiring #itstime

— Ashish Bagai (@abagai) December 22, 2013