{"id":4963,"date":"2022-12-16T17:54:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T12:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=265024"},"modified":"2022-12-16T17:54:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T12:24:42","slug":"pakistani-batter-azhar-ali-announces-retirement-from-test-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/pakistani-batter-azhar-ali-announces-retirement-from-test-format\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani batter Azhar Ali announces retirement from Test format"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"cb-nws-dtl-itms\">Pakistani batter Azhar Ali\u00a0has declared that he will stop playing Test cricket after the third match against England in Karachi, which begins on December 17. After Younis Khan, Javed Miandad, Inzamam Ul Haq, and Mohammad Yousuf, Azhar retires as Pakistan\u2019s fifth-highest run scorer in the format. He has 7097 runs in 96 games at an average of 42.49 going into his final match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"cb-nws-para\">\u201cIt has been a great honour and privilege for me to represent my country at the highest level. Deciding on when to call it a day is always tough, but, after contemplating deeply, I realised that this is the right time for me to retire from Test cricket,\u201d Azhar said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Azhar Ali addresses press conference at National Bank Cricket Arena, Karachi.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PAKvENG?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PAKvENG<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/D0uUC3qOFI\">https:\/\/t.co\/D0uUC3qOFI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheRealPCB\/status\/1603647118945579008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 16, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"cb-nws-dtl-itms\">\n<p class=\"cb-nws-para\">\u201cI have been blessed to share the dressing room with some of the most outstanding cricketers with whom I share a strong bond. I feel much richer by calling these people my friends. I am also blessed to have played under some wonderful coaches to whom I will always remain grateful,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAzhar Ali has been one of the most committed and loyal servants of Pakistan cricket. His grit and determination have been an inspiration for many young cricketers and he is a role model for up and coming cricketers,\u201d PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"in\" dir=\"ltr\">Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq lead the dressing room tributes for Azhar Ali. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EvI7NP42WC\">pic.twitter.com\/EvI7NP42WC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheRealPCB\/status\/1603723776910557184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 16, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Azhar Ali\u00a0has declared that he will stop playing Test cricket after the third match against England in Karachi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":27954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[480,3424,1015,409],"class_list":["post-4963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-azhar-ali","tag-pakistan","tag-pcb","tag-retirement"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}