Rohit Sharma made his India debut in an ODI in June 2007, and his T20I debut later that year in the T20 World Cup, where he played a crucial role in India’s title triumph.
In 2013, his career really took off in white-ball cricket after being promoted to open the batting; that year he also led Mumbai Indians to the IPL title.
Rohit Sharma has now become one of the greatest limited-overs openers and arguably the best current all-format opener with a late resurgence in Test cricket. Among Indian openers, Rohit Sharma is the fourth-leading run-scorer, with 12174 international runs as an opener, behind only Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gavaskar.
At the age of 35, Rohit also became India’s all-format captain. While Rohit Sharma is a key member of the Indian team, many other ex-cricketers who are younger than him have already retired from international cricket.
Here are 5 international stars who are younger than Rohit Sharma but have retired:
Abhimanyu Mithun
Former India pacer Abhimanyu Mithun played 4 Tests and 5 ODIs – all in 2010 and 2011 – picking up a total of 12 wickets in them. Now, 32-year-old, Mithun retired from international and domestic cricket in 2019 at the age of 30 to get stints in County cricket and other T20 leagues in the world.
The former Karnataka and RCB right-arm pacer, Abhimanyu Mithun is now part of the India Legends team in the Road Safety World Series T20.
Sudeep Tyagi
Sudeep Tyagi made his IPL debut for CSK in 2009; it followed debuts for India in ODI and T20I that year. However, Tyagi could only manage 4 ODIs and 1 T20I under his belt, picking 3 wickets in all, and his international career stopped before it could gain momentum.
A lanky pacer from Uttar Pradesh, Sudeep Tyagi made big noises when he took a ten-wicket haul on his Ranji debut in 2007. Tyagi last played first-class cricket in 2017, and announced retirement in 2020, at the age of 33. He then took part in the Lanka Premier League in 2020.
Abul Hasan
Abul Hasan is only 30 years old, but is already retired and playing in the RSWS for Bangladesh Legends. An all-rounder, Abul Hasan created a world record when he became the first No.10 in the history of Test cricket to score a century on his Test debut. He achieved the feat against West Indies in Khulna in November 2012 and he was only 20 years old then.
However, Hasan couldn’t make do well for Bangladesh after that, and was dropped after featuring in 3 Tests wherein he managed to pick only 3 wickets, and in 7 ODIs he couldn’t snap a single wicket, and 4 wickets in 5 T20Is while leaking at over 10 runs an over.
Thisara Perera
Former Sri Lanka all-rounder Thisara Perera is one of the finest all-rounders from the Island nation. Perera was part of the Sri Lankan side that reached the final of the 2011 World Cup and won the 2014 T20 World Cup.
He featured in 6 Tests, 166 ODIs and 84 T20Is for Sri Lanka before calling it quits with the national side in May 2021 at the age of 32. Perera is currently playing in the Legends League Cricket T20 tournament.
Isuru Udana
A white-ball specialist for Sri Lanka, Isuru Udana donned the national jersey for 21 ODIs and 35 T20Is in which he snapped 45 wickets in all and also hit some lusty blows as a tailender. Udana even got an IPL contract with RCB in 2020.
Despite being only 33 years of age, Udana announced his international retirement last year in order to become eligible to play in the Road Safety World Series.
