Round-up 2021: Harbhajan Singh to AB de Villiers - 5 top cricketers who bid adieu to the game

The year 2021 is nearly done and dusted. In cricket, it saw a few cricketers bidding farewell to the sport in some form or the other. Here, we present the five cricketers who retired.

It is nearly all over in 2021, as the globe prepares to welcome 2022 in a matter of four days. The sport of cricket will also be starting a new journey. However, the year 2021 saw a few cricketers bringing their journey in the sport to an end to some extent. Here, we look at the five top cricketers who retired from the sport.

Harbhajan Singh
Legendary Indian off-spinner Harbhajan is one of India's most successful off-spinners to date. He made his international debut in 1998. In 2001, he took 32 wickets in a Test series against Australia. He was also the first bowler to ever claim a hat-trick for India in Test cricket, doing so in the same Test series against Australia in 2001 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Harbhajan was also a member of the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup and 2011 ICC ODI World Cup-winning team. He has taken 417 wickets in 103 Tests, 269 wickets in 236 ODIs and 25 wickets in 28 T20I matches. Besides, he has also won the Indian Premier League (IPL) on four instances. He announced his farewell from professional cricket on December 24.

Dwayne Bravo
Windies's Bravo happens to be a superstar all-rounder of limited-overs cricket. He said goodbye to international cricket following the Caribbean's early exit from the 2021 T20WC. He has featured in 40 Tests, 164 ODIs and 91 T20Is for WI. On November 6, he announced his retirement from international cricket for the second time. However, he is to play domestic T20 for some time now.

Dale Steyn
The South African Pacer, a lethal speedster, Steyn too announced his retirement from the sport on August 31, as it brought curtains to his prolific 16-year career. He made his international debut in 2004, played 93 Tests, 125 ODIs and 47 T20s for the Proteas. In the ICC Test Rankings for bowlers, he ruled for 263 weeks between 2008-14. He claimed 439 Test wickets. Unfortunately, he never won an ICC tournament or the IPL.

Thisara Perera
Sri Lankan all-rounder Perera made his international debut against India in December 2009. Since then, he became an integral part of the Lankan limited-overs side, ruling the side for a decade. He played six Tests, 166 ODIs and 84 T20Is for the Lankans, claiming 175 ODI wickets and 51 T20I wickets. He also made significant contributions to the team by scoring 2,338 runs in the ODIs and 1,204 in T20Is. He announced his decision to retire from international cricket on May 3.

AB de Villiers
The legendary South African pinch-hitter, AB de Villiers, had already retired from international cricket in 2018. As he continued to entertain fans worldwide by playing domestic T20 leagues, he finally called curtains on his illustrious career by announcing retirement from all forms of cricket on November 19. He has scored 9,424 runs in the shortest format. However, his only failure remains that he never won the IPL with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) or Delhi Daredevils (DD).