PAK vs ZIM: Elton Chigumbura to retire from international cricket after T20I series
Zimbabwe’s right-arm medium pacer and lower-order hard-hitting batsman Elton Chigumbura has decided to hang his boots from the international circuit after the completion of the ongoing T20I series against Pakistan. The Men in Red are touring Pakistan for a three-match ODI and T20I series. Zimbabwe and Pakistan were up against each other in three One Day Internationals from October 30 to November 3 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium where the latter outshined the former by 2-1.
Former Zimbabwe captain Chigumbura didn’t find a spot in the ODI team and had to warm the bench for three games. However, Elton has been named in the playing XI of the first T20I against Pakistan, which is being played today at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The rest of the two T20Is scheduled on November 8 and November 10 at the same venue will be the last international outings of Chigumbura.
ICC revealed the news of his retirement in the following tweet.
JUST IN: Zimbabwe stalwart Elton Chigumbura will retire from international cricket at the end of the ongoing #PAKvZIM T20I series.
Over a 16-year career he has made 281 appearances for Zimbabwe before today, scoring 5761 runs and taking 138 wickets ? pic.twitter.com/7AYQ8XAD5P
— ICC (@ICC) November 7, 2020
Elton Chigumbura’s cricket career
Former Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura started his journey in the world of cricket at a tender age of 15. In 2002, he made his first-class debut for Mashonaland Eagles and since then has featured in 107 1st class games aggregating 5600 runs at an average of 32.2 and has taken 209 wickets at an economy of 3.28.
Chigumbura represented Zimbabwe in two Under-19 World Cups. He made headlines during the 2004 U19 World Cup as he picked up four wickets against Australia. This earned him a national debut as he got his ODI cap at an age of 18 on April 20, 2004 against Sri Lanka followed by the Test cap in May against the same opposition. Elton made his T20I debut against Bangladesh on November 28, 2006.
In May 2010, Elton Chigumbura replaced Prosper Utseya as Zimbabwe’s captain and he led the team in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. However, he was replaced by Brendan Taylor after Zimbabwe failed to reach the knock-out stage. Following this, Elton was again handed the leadership of limited-overs team in 2014 while Taylor was named as the Test captain. He stepped down as a captain in January 2016.
In his International career of 16 years, the former skipper featured in 213 ODI fixtures and 54 Test games scoring 4340 and 852 runs and picked 101 and 16 wickets respectively.
