NZ's Colin Munro announces retirement from international cricket

New Zealand batter Colin Munro has decided to draw curtains on his international career that spanned 123 matchesA whiteball specialist who featured at two previous T20 World Cups was hoping to reignite his New Zealand career at next months ICC Mens T20 World Cup but the 37yearold missed out on earning a recall and decided to call time on his international careerPlaying for the BLACKCAPS has always been the biggest achievement in my playing career I never felt prouder than donning that jersey and the fact that Irsquove been able to do that 123 times across all formats is something I will always be incredibly proud ofAlthough it has been a while since my last appearance I never gave up hope that I might be able to return off the back of my franchise T20 form With the announcement of the BLACKCAPS squad for the T20 World Cup now is the perfect time to close that chapter officially Munro was quoted as saying by New Zealand CricketWhile his international career has now officially come to an end Munro will continue to play franchise cricket around the worldAlso ReadT20 World Cup 2024 5 lessons India can learn from 2022 T20 World CupThe lefthander who last played in the fifth T20I against India at Bay Oval in 2020 represented New Zealand in 65 T20Is 57 ODIs and a single Test scoring over 3000 international runs and taking seven wicketsMunro ends his international career as New Zealandrsquos current sixth alltime leading T20I run scorer with 1724 runs at an average of 31 and a strikerate of 1564 including three centuries the most by any New ZealanderThe bighitting toporder batter represented New Zealand at the 2006 ICC Under 19 World Cup in Sri Lanka before making his international debut in all three formats on the 201213 tour of South AfricaHe would go on to excel in the white ball formats and was a key member of the Blackcaps in T20I and ODI teams between 2016 and 2019 and featured at the 2014 and 2016 T20 World Cups and the 2019 ODI World Cup in EnglandColin was one of our first players to embrace the aggressive 360degree style batting that is now accepted all around the world as best practice He was one of the pioneers of the new game an innovative batsman who took calculated risktaking to a new level and led what was to become a revolution in the way shortform cricket was playedWe thank him for his amazing contribution in more than hundred international games and wish him well in his future pursuits said NZC chief executive Scott WeeninkThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever