We are at the halfway mark of 2026. International cricket is set to pick up speed with a spate of bilateral series after the completion of the IPL 2026.
Earlier this year, India were crowned the T20 World Cup winners once again, becoming the first team to win back-to-back men’s titles and the first nation to lift the T20 WC on home soil. Before that, the Ashes series had engrossed cricket fans as Australia hammered England 4-1 at home.
In recent years, several teams are going through a transition phase, and this period has seen a plethora of international retirements, in particular in 2024 and 2025.
The year 2026 has so far seen five big-name international cricketers bid adieu to top-flight cricket. Let’s have a look at them.
5 Big Cricketers Retired From International Cricket In 2026
Usman Khawaja
One of Australia’s finest batsmen, Usman Khawaja, retired from international cricket at the end of the Ashes 2025/26. The left-hander had made his international debut in 2011.
A gritty Test opener, Khawaja, whose career could be split into pre- and post-Ashes 2021/22, retired as Australia’s 15th-highest Test run scorer with 6229 runs. He notched up 16 Test centuries and two ODI hundreds.
Kane Richardson
In January 2026, Australian fast bowler Kane Richardson said goodbye to international cricket. Richardson’s last international match was a T20I back in November 2023.
Because of the presence of Starc, Cummins, and Hazlewood, and Richardson’s own injury issues, he could feature in only 25 ODIs and 36 T20Is despite making his debut in 2013; he picked up a total of 84 wickets for Australia.
Richardson retired at the age of 34 from professional cricket. The pacer was part of the Australia squad that won the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai.
He had a prolific BBL career, wherein he claimed 142 wickets, fifth-most in BBL history at the time. “I feel like I have squeezed every drop out of myself,” Richardson said in his retirement announcement.
Sarfaraz Ahmed
Sarfaraz Ahmed has secured his place in the pantheon of Pakistan’s inspirational cricketers. He had a good career as a batsman: 3031 runs in Test cricket and 2315 in ODIs.
However, it is Sarfaraz’s captaincy that he is remembered most for, as Pakistan lifted the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, with a cherry on the cake being the fact that they beat arch-rivals India in the final.
Having played for Pakistan last in 2023, Sarfaraz Ahmed retired from international cricket in March 2026, winding down an international career that began in 2007. A month later, in April, Sarfaraz was appointed as Pakistan’s men’s team head coach.
Rassie van der Dussen
Among the South African batsmen who have scored over 2000 ODI runs, only one (AB de Villiers) had a better batting average than Rassie van der Dussen’s ODI average of 50.13.
In his short-lived international career, van der Dussen produced some high-quality knocks, which included six centuries in 65 ODI innings and 10 fifties in 53 T20I knocks.
Van der Dussen had solid returns with the bat in the 2019 and 2023 ODI World Cups and the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
A late bloomer in international cricket, Rassie van der Dussen announced retirement from international cricket in April 2026 at the age of 37. The right-hander took part in 18 Tests, 71 ODIs, and 57 T20Is between 2018 and 2025.
Kane Williamson
Unarguably, the retirement that left most people emotional and poignant this year is that by New Zealand legend Kane Williamson.
There is little to debate in the fact that Williamson finishes off as New Zealand’s greatest batsman of all-time. He leads on his country’s Test and overall international runs charts; Williamson is New Zealand’s fourth-highest run-getter in ODI cricket and second-highest in T20Is. He hit the most Test hundreds and the most international centuries by any Kiwi batter.
With the opportunities to make a quick buck in T20 franchise cricket growing at a faster rate than ever, and Williamson nearing his 36th birthday, the former Kiwi skipper called time on his international career in June 2026.
He amassed 9515 runs at an average of 54 in 110 Test matches, 7256 runs in 175 ODIs at 48, and 2575 T20I runs. Williamson raised 33 Test centuries and 15 hundreds in ODIs.
Williamson marched New Zealand to the 2019-21 ICC World Test Championship triumph, beating India in the final in 2021 in Southampton, where he scored 49 and 52*.
New Zealand’s white-ball teams attained consistency under Williamson, reaching the finals of the 2019 World Cup and 2021 T20 World Cup and the semi-finals of the 2016 T20 World Cup, 2022 T20 World Cup, and 2023 World Cup. However, they couldn’t lift any of these white-ball trophies, with the 2019 World Cup final defeat on boundary count still being painful to relive for the fans.
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