Jayawardene retires in 15th position

Dubai, Aug 19 (IANS) Sri Lankan cricketing great Mahela Jayawardene has signed off his illustrious Test career at 15th position in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings for Test batsmen released Tuesday.

The right-hander represented his country in 149 Tests amassing 11,814 runs to sit in seventh place on the all-time list of most run-getters.

In his final Test in Colombo, the 37-year-old fell both times to Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal after scoring 4 and 54 which meant the loss of one place in the table.

Jayawardene had topped the batting charts in November 2009 following his 275 against India in Ahmedabad. This was his 109th Test which also earned him a career-high 883 points and put him in 39th position in the list of ICC Best-Ever Test Championship Rating.

The veteran first reached top-10 in August 2000 after Sri Lanka drew the third Test and the series against South Africa in his country's capital.

He spent eight days as the top-ranked batsman in Test cricket in November 2009 which is when he also achieved his highest points tally with 883.

The former Sri Lanka captain finished with an average of 49.84 with 34 centuries and 50 half-centuries and a highest score of 374 which he scored against South Africa in 2006.

Jayawardene retired from Twenty20 Internationals after Sri Lanka won the World T20 title defeating India in April in Bangladesh.