WATCH: A young Lasith Malinga leaving batsmen clueless with his unique action and searing yorkers

One of white-ball cricket’s greatest of all time, Lasith Malinga has announced retirement from all forms of Cricket. The Sri Lankan cricketer had announced retirement from other formats previously, and by hanging up boots from T20 cricket, it’d be fair to say the world has seen the last of Malinga in professional cricket. He mentioned […]
 
?width=963&height=541&resizemode=4
WATCH: A young Lasith Malinga leaving batsmen clueless with his unique action and searing yorkers

One of white-ball cricket’s greatest of all time, Lasith Malinga has announced retirement from all forms of Cricket. The Sri Lankan cricketer had announced retirement from other formats previously, and by hanging up boots from T20 cricket, it’d be fair to say the world has seen the last of Malinga in professional cricket. He mentioned in his announcement that he will continue to mentor young cricketers in the years to come.

“Today is a very special day for me because I want to thank each and everyone who has supported me and blessed me throughout my T20 career. Today I decided, I want to give 100 percent rest for my T20 bowling shoes,” he said, in an official announcement through his social media handles. Malinga has played 30 Tests, 226 ODIs and 84 T20Is for Sri Lanka over a period of 17 years.

Twitterati have been digging up old videos of the legendary cricketer, and one of it from his first tour of New Zealand has been getting a lot of attention. Those were the times when Lasith Malinga was still new in the arena and was incredibly tough to pick. His slinging action and the unprecedented late dip made batters around the world sweat, and this video perfectly sums up how he troubled opposition over the years that followed.

Lasith Malinga finishes with 1093 professional wickets

The Sri Lankan fast bowler has picked up 390 wickets in the shortest format of the game, 257 wickets in First-class cricket and 446 in List A, taking his tally in professional cricket to a whopping 1093. The 338 wickets he picked up in ODI cricket is the 9th highest tally of all time in the format. He currently holds 107 wickets in T20I cricket, the most among any player in the category, but he is likely to be trumped by Shakib Al Hasan in the coming weeks, who is on 106.