Cricket / 14 out of 15 cricketers part of India's 2003 World Cup squad have retired

Wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel on Wednesday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, becoming the 14th cricketer part of Team India's 2003 World Cup squad to hang up his boots. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is the only member of the 2003 World Cup squad who is still an active cricketer. Harbhajan had pulled out of IPL 2020 due to personal reasons.

Vikrant Shekhawat : Dec 09, 2020, 05:26 PM

Cricket Desk: India cricketer Parthiv Patel announced his retirement from all forms of the game on Wednesday. He last played for India against South Africa in a Test match in Johannesburg back in 2018 and in the other two formats, he donned the blue jersey in June 2011 and February 2012. With his retirement, Parthiv became the penultimate player to hang his boots from India’s 2003 World Cup squad.

The only player yet to retire from the squad that made it to the final of the mega event is Harbhajan Singh. The off-spinner was the most economical bowler for India in the tournament and had also picked 11 wickets in the 10 matches he played. However, he hasn’t played for his country for a long time now and seems unlikely to make it to the team again.

Harbhajan Singh last featured in an India XI back in 2016 against United Arab Emirates in a T20I. He last played a Test or an ODI in 2015. The offie has played a total of 103 Tests, 236 ODIs and 28 T20Is for India picking 417, 269 and 25 wickets respectively.

Harbhajan Singh is playing in the IPL

Harbhajan Singh took up commentary in between and has also been playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He played for the Mumbai Indians (MI) a few seasons and represented the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) since 2018. However, he pulled out of the 13th edition of the tournament which was played in the UAE behind the closed doors due to COVID-19 outbreak.

As far as the 2003 World Cup squad concerned, apart from him all are now retired. Rather Sourav Ganguly, the then skipper, has become the BCCI President while Rahul Dravid is currently the head at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). It is still unclear whether he will feature in the next IPL edition while it also remains to be seen if the mega auction will take place ahead of the 2021 season.

As for Parthiv Patel, he represented India in 25 Tests, 38 ODIs and two T20 Internationals during his 16-year long career. He was a regular in the team until MS Dhoni arrived and was sidelined since then.