Domestic star Devendra Bundela retires from First-class cricket

by rishavApril 1, 2018

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Devendra Bundela, domestic veteran, has called it quits on his way to the 23-year-long first-class career.

The Madhya Pradesh batsman retires with an experience of 164 first-class games in which he scored 10,004 runs at an impressive average of 43.68.

Bundela’s last first-class game came against Delhi during the 2017/18 season where Madhya Pradesh lost the quarter-final to the Rishabh Pant-led side.

There were speculations that he might take a decision post that game but Bundela announced his retirement after the end of the season.

In his statement, the experienced cricketer remarked it has been hard for him to chalk out the decision. He added there are youngsters who have the potential to rise to the occasion.

“I feel it is the right time to retire when people say that you can play more. I feel honoured that I pursued a career in what I loved the most – cricket. To call it day, it is very hard and emotional for me but then there is a time for all the players who go through the complete circle of life,” Bundela said during a press conference.

He played for India A against Windies in Moov America Challenge. The team had likes of Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh, who all play Test cricket for India.

“My job was to play cricket and I played with my whole heart, their job was to select a team they did their job. If a player only plays to get selected for the Indian team then it will be very difficult for him to survive in the game,” he added.

Bundela also played for India Under-19 and faced likes of Australian speedster Brett Lee in junior cricket.

Until last season, he was leading Madhya Pradesh in Ranji Trophy. He had already let playing List A cricket in 2011 and was just playing the first-class format.

Bundela played just one season (2007) of T20 cricket and decided not to play the shortest format.

Last year during an interaction, he had revealed that days cricket has always been a priority for him. Bundela retires as the most capped player in the history of Ranji Trophy.

Devendra Bundela is the third highest run-scorer in Ranji Trophy with 9201 runs – after Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar.

Despite his golden run in domestic cricket, he couldn’t earn a national recall. He will join likes of domestic stalwarts like Amol Muzumdar, Sitanshu Kotak who did well in domestic cricket, but couldn’t play international cricket for India.