Andrew Flintoff has announced his retirement from test match cricket from after the final test of the Ashes this year because of persistent injuries in the last four years. He has, however, said that he will be available for the shorter formats, the ODIs and the T20Is.
Flintoff had been recovering from a knee injury that had kept him out of most of the matches during the IPL and then the test series against West Indies and the ICC World T20, before declaring himself fit for the Ashes. However, he complained of another round of pain in the same knee that had seen him get operated upon and he said that he thought that this was the way of his body telling him to stop playing test cricket.
Flintoff first made this announcement before the team’s practice session on Wednesday, and this was followed by a press conference in which he made this statement as well. Flintoff, now, will be free to play for the Chennai Super Kings, his IPL franchise for whom he has been signed for a whopping $1.55m contract.
The immediate questions that are needed to be answered are whether Flintoff will be fit enough to play for the second test match against Australia at Lord’s, after England had struggled to draw the first one. Flintoff batted decently in both the innings but picked up only one wicket and conceded more than 100 runs in the game.
Flintoff signed off by saying, “Being part of an Ashes-winning team was very special, and so was beating everyone in the world for a period of time, and playing a major part in that.”