Imrul Kayes has announced his retirement from Test cricket; His last test match was at Eden Gardens

Imrul Kayes, a 37-year-old Bangladeshi batsman has announced his retirement from first-class cricket and Test cricket. He shared this news via his Facebook post. He said that his last red-ball match will be for the Khulna Division in the National Cricket League against Dhaka Division at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka starting on Saturday (16 November). Kayes has also shared a one-minute 29-second video with glimpses of his cricket career for the fans. Kayes played his last international Test match against India in 2019 at Eden Gardens in Mumbai.

Imrul Kayes wrote on social media, "Assalamu Aleikum, I am Imrul Kayes. With love and respect to all my Bangladeshi cricket fans, I want to share that I am going to make a difficult decision about my cricket career soon. On November 16, I will officially retire from Test and first-class cricket. This has been the most challenging and emotional decision of my 17-year career.

Left-handed batsman Imrul Kayes scored 1,797 runs in 39 Tests for Bangladesh at an average of 24.28 with three centuries and four half-centuries. His last Test appearance for Bangladesh has come against India in the 2019 encounter at Eden Gardens. The batsman scored only 9 runs in the two innings and lost the game by an innings and 46 runs. Besides that, Kayes has played 137 first-class matches, scoring 7,930 at an average of 33.74 runs with 27 half-centuries and 20 centuries, his highest score being 204.

While announcing his retirement from the red-ball format, the veteran batsman will keep playing white-ball cricket. Kayes has represented Bangladesh in 78 ODIs, scoring 2,434 runs at an average of 32.02 with 16 half-centuries and four centuries. His latest appearance in an ODI came in 2018 against the West Indies, which they lost by four wickets. Kayes has also appeared in as many as 14 T20 matches, scoring 119 runs at an average of 9.15 but hasn't been able to achieve any significant feat.