Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah to retire from all cricket

Jaydev Shah, the Saurashtra captain, will retire from all cricket after the upcoming Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka in Rajkot. The son of former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, Jaydev has already captained his team to a record 111 matches, the highest for anyone in the Ranji Trophy. The match against Karnataka on December 6 will be his 120th first-class appearance.

Jaydev, who made his first-class debut in 2002-03 averages over 29 with the bat, aggregating 5253 runs with ten hundreds and 19 fifties. This season, he has shown good form with a 165 in the previous encounter against Baroda and an unbeaten 81 against Gujarat. His List-A and T20 numbers are paler in comparison, with averages of 20.26 and 16.20 in 65 and 36 matches respectively.

Jaydev famously led Saurashtra to the Vijay Hazare Trophy title in 2007-08, which to date remains Saurahstra's only title across formats in domestic cricket. His appointment as India A captain for a short tour of Israel in 2008 was a corollary of that one-day title win. Saurashtra also came within touching distance of clinching the Ranji Trophy under Jaydev's captaincy on two occasions - in 2012-13 and 2015-16 - but were thwarted at the final hurdle by Mumbai, losing by an innings on both occasions.

Jaydev was contracted by Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians and finally Gujarat Lions, who had bought him for INR 20 lakh in the 2016 edition of the IPL. However, he did not play a single match for any of the franchises.