South Africa opener Hashim Amla, on Thursday (August 8), announced his retirement from all forms of the game. The veteran right-hander had a torrid time in 2019 World Cup and showed signs of returning back to form only after South Africa were eliminated from the semi-finals race. Facing the flak for Proteas' disastrous campaign, where they finished at the seventh spot, Amla made the tough call and drew curtains on his glittering international career. He played 124 Tests, 181 ODIs and 44 T20Is and managed a plethora of runs across formats.

This became another big jolt for the South African cricket team following their World Cup blip and ahead of their campaign in ICC Test Championship. Earlier, speedster Dale Steyn had called it quits from Test cricket in order to shift his focus on white-ball format.

Talking about Amla, the elegant right-hander piled up over 9000 and 8000 runs in Tests and ODIs respectively. He remains the fastest to 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, and 7000 ODI runs. However, his lack of runs in the 12th edition of the World Cup led to a lot of criticism. He finished the tournament with only two fifty-plus scores and perished in single digits in three outings. Thus, he averaged just above 40 but failed versus the big teams like India, England and Pakistan.

Amla will, however, continue to feature in franchise T20 leagues. He has represented Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Indian Premier League (IPL), Barbados Tridents Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and Durham Heat in Mzansi Super League.

In an emotional mail to Cricket South Africa (CSA), Amla thanked his parents, entire family, fans, friends, teammates and support staffs who were a part of his 15-year journey in international cricket.

Amla finished with an average of over 45 in Tests and ODIs whereas maintained a strike rate of above 130 in the shortest format of the game. He scored 28 centuries in whites (including three double tons and a solitary triple century) whereas registered 27 tons in the ODIs. He didn't slam a hundred in T20Is but scored eight half-centuries.

Following the retirement of Amla and Steyn, South Africa will be under pressure when they kick off their campaign in ICC Test Championship versus Team India in their own backyard in September 2019.

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