Colin Munro announces retirement from International cricket following a decade long service

New Zealand's top-order batsman Colin Munro has announced his official retirement from his International cricket career which began way back in 2012.

Colin Munro has remained out of the National team setup for more than 3 years now as he has been playing in various franchise leagues around the world. Although he doesn't have an IPL contract in hand, Munro has made consistent appearances in T20 leagues in UAE, Pakistan, Australia, and the Caribbean.

Colin Munro's career and records in brief

Colin Munro came through the ranks of New Zealand's domestic side Auckland for which he made his official first-class cricket debut in 2006. His first domestic game was against Canterbury on December 7th, almost 3 weeks before he made his List A debut against Northern District on December 23rd.

In that very year, Colin Munro played the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka wherein New Zealand had crashed out from the group stages itself. As he continued to grind himself in the domestic circuit, Munro's call-up to the Kiwi National side came 6 years later in 2012 during a 3-match T20I series in South Africa in December 2013.

On his first 3 T20 internationals, he had scores of 23, 8* and 3. Just a month later, Colin Munro was handed his maiden ODI cap in the 2nd of another 3-match series at the Rainbow Nation in January 2013. Before playing his first ODI series, Munro was given a Test cricket cap by the Kiwis against South Africa on 11th January.

That Test cap against the Proteas remains as his only appearance in the longest format at the highest level of cricket. Colin Munro then became an integral part of the New Zealand team in the white-ball setup.

He represented the national team during the T20 World Cups in 2014 and 2016. Munro was also a part of the Kiwi team which lost the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 final against England in Lord's through boundary count margin.

Colin Munro was known for their uncanny batting style and his power-hitting ability which had made him a hot prospect in the IPL as well. However, he could not do justice to his reputation of being a big hitter as Munro played just 13 IPL games - 4 in 2016 and 2019 and 5 times in 2018.

But his range-hitting ability did see him create a few records in the New Zealand national team. Colin Munro holds the record of scoring the fastest century in T20Is for the Blackcaps when he smacked a 47-ball 100 against West Indies in Bay Oval back in 2018. He is also the fastest Kiwi half-centurion in the shortest format as his 14-ball 50 against Sri Lanka in 2016 is yet to be broken.

The 37-year-old is also the only Kiwi batter to score 3 centuries in T20Is. UAE's Muhammad Waseem, Czech Republic's Davizi, India's Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma, and Australia's Glenn Maxwell are the batters who have more centuries than Munro in the format.

He quits international cricket after playing 1 Test, 57 ODIs, and 65 T20Is in which he scored 15 runs, 1271 runs, and 1724 runs respectively.

What did Munro say about his retirement?

Colin Munro, in his official retirement statement, stated that representing New Zealand at the highest level has been the biggest achievement of his career. He claimed that he did try to stage a return to the Kiwi T20 team through his franchise cricket performances but that never happened.

On the back of New Zealand's T20 World Cup 2024 squad announcement, Munro admitted that it's the best time for him to retire.

"Playing 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 I’ve been able to do that 123 times across all formats is something I will always be incredibly proud of."

"With the announcement of the BLACKCAPS squad for the T20 World Cup now is the perfect time to close that chapter officially." - Colin Munro said via New Zealand Cricket Board's official website.