Former Indian Test cricketer Pragyan Ojha announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket on Friday. The left-arm spinner took to Twitter to announce his decision. Pragyan, hailed as one of the best left-arm spinners in the country over the last two decades last plated for India in 2013.


Ojha was a seasoned spinner for India under the captaincy of MS Dhoni and he formed a good spin duo with Ravichandran Ashwin, helping the Test team in carving out many memorable wins.


Ojha's swansong in the Test cricket came in Sachin Tendulkar’s last-ever Test against West Indies in Mumbai. While he represented India in all the three formats, it was his performance in Tests that stood out. With Harbhajan Singh struggling, India tried out Ojha with Ashwin and the move paid off.’

The left arm tweaker was the highest wicket taker for India with 20 wickets in the 1-2 series loss to England at home. With Ravindra Jadeja coming up the ranks, Ojha lost his Test spot to Ravindra Jadeja in the very next series against Australia at home in 2013. He was later recalled but was soon dropped again and did not earn any recall after the Test against West Indies in November 2013.

Ojha was a seasoned campaigner in domestic cricket for Hyderabad and picked up a bagful of wickets in Ranji Trophy games. Besides playing for Hyderabad in domestic cricket, Ojha also played for Bihar and Bengal in first class cricket.

In international cricket, Pragyan Ojha played 24 Tests, 18 ODIs and 6 T20Is for India. He picked up 113 Test wickets, 21 ODI wickets and 10 T20I wickets. In first-class cricket, he played 108 games and took a total of 424 wickets at an average of less than 29. The left-arm spinner also boasts of more than 100 wickets in List A and T20 games.