Ireland's Kevin O’Brien Announces Retirement From International Cricket

Kevin O'Brien Retirement: Irish al-rounder on his Twitter handle wrote that the time is opportune to hang his boots.

Kevin O'Brien Retirement: Ireland all-rounder Kevin O’Brien announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Tuesday, August 16.  In a lengthy post, Kevin O’Brien on his Twitter handle wrote that the time is opportune for the all-rounder to hang his boots.

“Today I announce my retirement from international cricket after 16 years and 389 caps for my country. I had hoped to finish my career at the T20 World Cup in Australia but having not been picked for the Irish squad since last year’s World Cup, I feel that the selectors and management are looking elsewhere,” O’Brien mentioned in his post.

Kevin O'Brien Career 

He debuted in his first test match against Pakistan in the village, of Dublin, Ireland on May 11, 2018. Kevin’s last test match was against England at Lords, London, the United Kingdom on July 29, 2019.

His ODI debut was against England at Civil Service Cricket Club on Jun 13, 2006and his Last ODI was against the Netherlands at Sportpark Maarschalkerweerd on Jun 07, 2021.

Kevin’s T20 Debut was against Scotland at Civil Service Cricket Club, on Aug 02, 2008, and his last T20 match was against Namibia at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, on Oct 22, 2021

Overall, Kevin scored 3619 runs at an average of 29.42 with two hundred and 18 fifties, as well as he took 114 wickets at an average of 32.68 in the ODI format, before retiring in June 2021 from the ODI format. 

In T20Is, he made 1973 runs at an average of 21.21 and took 58 wickets at an average of19.81 from 110 games, and is one of the only two players from the country to have scored a hundred in the format, alongside Paul Stirling. 

He changed the cricket for the Irish international team when he scored a hundred against England and Ireland beat England by three wickets, chasing down a 328-run victory target with five balls to spare, it came in a 2011 World Cup game against England in Bengaluru, when he smashed many bowlers to pave his way to make hundred off from just 50 balls -the fastest ever in World Cups- to help his side gun down a 328-run target in a landmark win. Kevin has had a major involvement in Ireland's rise in cricket. He represented Ireland at the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in which he smashed 241 runs