In a rather surprising and abrupt move, Australia captain Michael Clarke has decided to retire from international cricket after the fifth match- last game of Ashes 2015. Clarke who has been under fire for his form for quite a while now feels that it’s the right time to take such a decision.
The 34-year-old has not been able to reach a fifty since his last 12 innings and averages only 16.71 in the four matches of Ashes, which is by far the worst performance amongst the regular Australian batsman in this series. He has possibly run out of steam and needs to take some load off his shoulders.
Never in his entire career spanning 113 matches, has a time come when he has been so desperate to get runs. He has had a dream run for the better part of his test career. Clarke played a scintillating knock of 151 runs in his debut against India in 2004. Australia tasted a victory and Clarke was awarded ‘Man of the Match’. Clearly he could not have asked for a better start to his career.
His good performance continued in the home debut as well and went on to make a century again. In 2011, he was made the Test captain and this was the period when he relished all the most prolific scores of his career, which includes eight test tons, three double-hundreds and a triple-hundred, which won him two Allan Border medals.
In the Test cricket, Clarke has managed to amass 8628 at a staggering average of 49.73 which has been tainted a bit due to his poor recent show. He is the fourth highest run getter for Aussies in Tests. He also holds the record for most double-centuries in a calendar year(4) and his innings of 329 against India is the highest individual score at the SCG. He has scored Test centuries at sixteen cricket grounds, including eleven at venues outside Australia. As of 2015, his place is cemented at fifth place in the list of highestTest century-makers for Australia.
