Gurkeerat Singh Mann retires from international and Indian cricket
Gurkeerat Singh Mann, the 33-year old Punjab allrounder, has announced his retirement from international and Indian cricket. He played three ODIs for India in 2016 and was an IPL champion with Gujarat Titans six years later.Gurkeerat’s talents as an offspinner and a quick-scoring batter were first noticed in 2011, when he was part of the Punjab Under-22 side that won the CK Nayudu Trophy. Steady performances from there on took him towards an India call-up. By 2015, he was making the ‘A’ team and played a crucial part in winning a tri-series final against Australia A. Gurkeerat took that form and confidence into that season’s Ranji Trophy and when he scored a double-hundred and followed that up with a nine-wicket haul, his step up was complete.Gurkeerat was picked in India’s Test squad for the home series against South Africa in November – but he did not play – and at the start of 2016, he toured Australia with India’s limited-overs squad and made his ODI debut in Melbourne.
Gurkeerat faced 13 balls as a batter and bowled 60 balls as a bowler in international cricket – all in ODIs. He made his IPL debut for his hometown franchise, Kings XI Punjab as they were known then, in 2012, and played for them until 2017, scoring 342 runs in 24 innings at a strike rate of 126. In 2019, he was with Royal Challengers Bangalore, for whom he scored 169 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 113. He was picked up by Titans in 2022. He didn’t play for them but was part of the dressing room that went on to win the title. Something similar happened this month with Punjab winning their first-ever Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy with Gurkeerat getting just one game in the campaign.