Naman Ojha retires from professional cricket

Naman Ojha, the Madhya Pradesh Ranji Trophy stalwart, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Monday, February 15, 2021. The right-handed batsman is one of the legends of the Indian domestic cricket and had an illustrious career as a wicketkeeper- batsman. His performances in domestic cricket and India A helped him to get to the Indian team, but his international career never took off.

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 The 37-year-old made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in 2000-01 season of Ranji Trophy. His batting skills had impressed several people at the domestic level and helped him garner quite a name for himself through the early 2000s. However, his wicketkeeping skills were always put into question.

 Ojha experienced the peak of his success in two phases. First was when he was picked by Rajasthan Royals for the 2009 IPL in South Africa. Some quality performance in that season helped him to gain confidence for the 2010 season. He managed to score 377 runs for Royals in that season, which helped him to get the national team call-up. He played one ODI and a couple T20Is with little to no return during the Zimbabwe tour in 2010. He never played for India in coloured clothing ever again.

 However, when MS Dhoni retired from Tests, Ojha was one of the wicketkeepers who were in discussion. During that phase, he was scoring runs heavily for his Ranji team and India A. He was picked for the tour to Sri Lanka in 2015. He managed to make his Test debut as well in that match as Wriddhiman Saha had endured an injury. He managed 56 runs in two innings along with four catches and a stumping. He never played for India again and soon fell out of favour.

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 He retires with terrific numbers in first-class cricket. He scored 9753 runs at an average of 41.67 with 22 centuries to his name