Opener Lendl Simmons announces retirement from international cricket with immediate effect

Veteran opener Lendl Simmons have announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect. On 18^th July, Simmons made a formal announcement and decided to call it a day from international cricket.

In 2006, Lendl Simmons made his limited-overs debut for West Indies against Pakistan. He perished for a duck in his debut game. Since then, Simmons represented West Indies in 68 ODI matches, in which he has accumulated 1,958 runs at an average of 31.58 with two centuries and sixteen half-centuries to his name.

In 66 T20Is played for West Indies, Lendl Simmons has scored 1,508 runs at an average of 27.41 with nine half-centuries. He was part of West Indies cricket team that won back-to-back T20 World Cups in 2012 and 2016. In 2016 ICC T20 World Cup semifinal, Lendl Simmons smashed a scintillating 82 runs to help West Indies upstage India and qualify for the finals of the competition.

After scoring a lot of runs in the Caribbean Premier League, Simmons was recalled to the West Indies squad for the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. Simmons had a woeful run with the bat for West Indies including 35-ball 16 runs against South Africa.

The 37-year old has valuable experience of playing in various T20I Leagues around the globe. For Mumbai Indians, Simmons was instrumental in helping the franchise the IPL Trophy in 2015 and 2017.

Despite his international retirement, he will continue to play franchise cricket and might also look for opportunities in the T20 Leagues happening across the globe. Simmons said that it was incredible honor to West Indies cricket team for 16 years. He further expressed his thanks to West Indies Cricket for giving him opportunities in order to showcase his talents with the ball in white-ball cricket.

It will be interesting to see how the likes of Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers and Brandon King fare for West Indies in the T20 format. The retirement of Simmons is certainly the end of era for West Indies golden generation of cricketers.