Detailed List of all Shahid Afridi retirements

Shahid Afridi has pulled out of retirement on a number of instancesYou won't come across a more colourful character in cricket than Pakistan's Shahid Afridi. Apart from his performances with bat and ball, Afridi has also been popular for a number of other reasons in his career.In his initial years,there was a lot of speculation surrounding his age, which seemed to remain stagnant for long periods of time. Afridi has also been pulled up very often for getting involved in on-field altercations over the years.Other things that make the talismanic Pakistani cricketer famous are his Starman celebration and his tendency to retire or mull retirement only to pull out of his decision soon after. On at least four separate instances, Shahid Afridi has decided to pull down the curtains on his career, only to subsequentlydrag them back up.Here we take a look at each of those Afridi retirements and subsequent retractions:

#1 Retired from Test cricket in 2006, made a U-turn within 2 weeks, finally retired in 2010

Afridi announced his retirement from Tests in 2006 and returned in 2010

On 12 April 2006, Shahid Afridi announced his retirement from the longest format of the game. The reason he cited was that he wanted to concentrate on the ODI format and prepare for the 2007 ICC World Cup.

If the announcement wasn’t shocking enough, his about-turn two weeks later made even more headlines. After being persuaded to reconsider his decision by then PCB chairman Shahryar Khan, Afridi announced to a disbelieving world on 27 April 2006 that he would continue playing Tests.

But in an ominous turn of events that could possibly be considered karma, Afridi didn’t play a Test for a long time after 2006; his sabbatical lasted for three whole years.

In 2010, Afridi not just returned to the Pakistani Test team, but was made the captain as well. However, his second innings lasted just a solitary match and he retired from Test cricket for good after that.

Not many people were surprised at Shahid Afridi's decision to quit as he had never been too inclined towards Test cricket throughout his career.