In the early hours of the last day of the week, Usman Khawaja announced that he would be retiring from all kinds of international cricket and the last of the five Test matches of the Ashes in which Australia was eyeing to get the Urn with a 4-1 margin, as they had already won the series and the fourth Test in Melbourne was about to start.
Unintentionally, Khawaja will retire at the SCG, where he has played his test cricket for Australia for 15 years, starting from his debut against England in the 2010/11 Ashes series, he is being added to the list of the rare cricketers who made their international debut and retired on the same ground.
Here is a list of five legendary players whose careers began and ended in the same place
Five legends who made international debut and retired at the same venue
- Shane Warne – SCG
Australian legend Shane Warne, widely regarded as the best spinner ever, made his international debut at the SCG against India in the New Year’s Test of 1992. In the match that ended in a draw, Warne batted at number 8 where he was first seen with the bat after a lower-order collapse, he made 20(67).
Bowling-wise, he participated in only one innings, got the wicket of Ravi Shastri after his 206(477). Warne’s total bowling for the match was 45 overs and 1/150
In his last Test match, the leg-spinner caught England in the fifth Test of the Ashes 2006/07 and claimed 1/69 (22.4), getting Monty Panesar out to leave England 291 all out. He hit 71 off 65 balls before getting Andrew Flintoff out as his only dismissal in the last innings.
His stat line of 1/23 (6) meant that he ended his career with a mind-boggling total of 708 wickets taken in 145 matches. Additionally, he also scored 3154 runs with 12 fifties. He had taken another 293 ODI wickets in 191 innings and shared two World Cup victories.
- Graeme Smith – Cape Town
Among the exceptional captains of Test cricket in modern days, Graeme Smith made his international debut in the second Test of Australia’s tour of South Africa 2002 at Newlands, Cape Town.
During the first innings, Smith made only 3 runs off 9 balls at number 3 as the team lost all wickets and scored 239. In the second innings, the left-handed batsman stood firm and scored 68 runs off 147 balls with 9 fours to his name and helped the team to a huge 330-run lead while they were already 143 runs in deficit of the Australian’s first innings score. However, the target was easily achieved by the Aussies.
In 2014, at the age of 33, Smith surprised the whole cricket world with his retirement announcement, which was mainly due to personal issues including taking care of his daughter who had been severely burnt.
His last match was at the same ground against the same team where he scored 5 and 3 in their 245-run defeat marked by Warner’s twin centuries.
He concluded his career with 9265 runs in 117 Tests and also led SA in 109 matches and he is the most successful Test captain till today with 53 wins.
- Ricky Ponting – W.A.C.A
The former Australian Test captain debuted at the W.A.C.A against Sri Lanka in December 1995 when he was the star with his brilliant 96 (14) in the first innings that brought the team score to 617/5 (d). With the huge lead, they did not even have to bat again and won the game comfortably by an innings and 36 runs.
In his last Test, he faced South Africa again at the W.A.C.A, as the Australian batsmen struggled to cope up with the South African fast bowlers. He scored only 4 (7) and 8 (23) in the two innings and his team lost the game by a margin of 309 runs. Ponting finished his career with a total of 13,378 runs in 168 games with 41 centuries to his name.
- Jacques Kallis – Durban
The best all-rounder of all time might be Jacques Kallis. In the 1995/96 season, he played his very first Test where he scored only 1 run in 12 balls at the very end of the third match in the series against England in the home series at Kingsmead, Durban. The match was a draw and the last two days did not see any cricket being played.
His last Test match, on the other hand, was against India and it lasted until the fifth day in 2013. Kallis bowled 11 overs for 0/36, batted 115(316), and they won the match easily by 10 wickets, making 59 runs in 62 balls. So, eventually he retired with a total of 13289 runs in 166 matches, 45 centuries, and 292 wickets including 5 five-fers.
- James Anderson – Lord’s
James Anderson is the highest wicket-taking fast bowler in Tests. He made his debut at Lord’s in 2003 for England against Zimbabwe and made 5/73 (16) in the first innings, which was a tremendous start for him, as England imposed a follow-on with a big 325-run lead. Although he did not take any wickets in the second innings, the match ended with England winning by an innings and 92 runs.
It was after 21 years that he returned to the same ground for his last game against the West Indies, where he took 1/26 in the first innings and 3/32 in the second as they won by an innings and 114 runs. His incredible career concluded with 704 wickets in 188 Tests, which is just 4 notches below Warne.
Other famous names include: Dale Steyn (Port Elizabeth), Brett Lee (MCG), Andrew Strauss (Lord’s) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (Bridgetown)
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