After playing 19 years of cricket Rangana Herath has announced his retirement from rickety after he plays first test match against England at Galle. The 40 year old left arm spinner has played close to 90 test matches and taken 430 wickets which is a huge achievement.

Source: News.comes. au

Herath made his debut in the year 1999 and he was completely over shadowed by the Legend Muttiah Muralitharan as Murli was at his peak. The left arm spinner played just 22 test matches in time span of 11 years and took only 71 wickets at an average of 37.88. But soon after retirement of Murli, Herath picked up the pace and became the leading bowler of Srilankan test team. Herath's one of the best performance came soon after Murli left as Srilanka were playing in South Africa and Herath took match winning 11 wickets. After that victory Herath never looked back as he emerged as the leading wicket taker in the year 2012 but picking up 60 wickets in 12 months.

The left arm spinner showed his consistency as he has picked close to 350 wickets from 2011 to 2018. He has claimed most of his wickets against Pakistan and the number being 230. At the age of 40 now he feels that his body is not complimenting him and hence he decides to retire. Herath is second leading wicket taker in Srilanka's list after Muttiah Muralitharan who had 800 wickets under his name. While he is already the leading left arm wicket taker in the world. He also has the chance to move ahead of Richard Hadlee, Stuart Broad and Kapil Dev if he picks up 5 more wickets in his final test match.

Source: iafrica.com

Even though he will not be able to achieve 100 test match mark but still he will be satisfied the way he took full control of the Srilankan bowling attack after Murli. In February in an interview he also said that he is not looking too far towards 100 matches but it will be great if he does that.

In November Galle will witness another exit and yes they will give their full support to Herath. Also, just by picking one wicket at Galle, Herath will become second bowler after Muralitharan to pick 100 wickets at the venue. I hope he does well in his last test and wish for his sucess in the coming life.