\tMumbai: India wicketkeeper-batter Kona Srikar Bharat, who played seven Tests for the country between 2023-2024, on Thursday announced his retirement from international cricket.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old made his debut against Australia in Nagpur in February 2023, though he got a call-up in India squad in 2019, while he played his last Test for the county against England in Visakhapatnam a year later. He scored 221 runs with a career-best of 44.<\/p>\n
“With a proud heart and a sense of gratitude, I announce my retirement from international cricket. To play for my country has been the greatest honour of my life,” Bharat said in a social media post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“This journey of mine has demanded great resilience and strength, but the honour to represent India in Tests was worth every moment. In a family of four, we all lived the same dream over two decades.<\/p>\n
“A big heart to my sister, mom and dad for creating the environment and support system they have been. I am a product of their love, discipline and hard work,” he added.<\/p>\n
The right-handed batter, who played for Andhra in domestic cricket, is the first wicketkeeper-batter to score a triple century in Ranji Trophy. He had scored 308 off 311 balls for Andhra against Goa in 2014-2015, which was also the first-ever triple ton by any Andhra batter.<\/p>\n
Bharat thanked former India captains Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma under whom he made his IPL and international debut, along with former head coach Rahul Dravid.<\/p>\n
“A big thank you to my IPL debut captain Virat Kohli for giving me an opportunity to show my skill and come into recognition,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“A big thank you to my Indian captain Rohit Sharma, under whom I made my Test debut, which is priceless and beyond words.<\/p>\n
“To my Indian coach Rahul Dravid sir, his guidance from India A to Indian team is unforgettable. With your support, I could become an Indian Test cricketer,” he added.<\/p>\n
Bharat played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2021 while he represented Delhi Capitals in IPL 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mumbai: India wicketkeeper-batter Kona Srikar Bharat, who played seven Tests for the country between 2023-2024, on Thursday announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,347186,347187,24923,45258,72835,85,2131],"class_list":["post-715351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-kona-srikar-bharat","tag-ks-bharat","tag-rahul-dravid","tag-rohit-sharma","tag-royal-challengers-bengaluru","tag-sports","tag-virat-kohli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}