Former Australian Test opener Will Pucovski retires from cricket at the age of 26

Former Australian Test match opener Will Pucovski has retired from all forms of cricket at a very young age of 26. The retirement came after Pucovski battled with many head injuries and multiple episodes of concussion. The Australian batter called it quits from the sport after a detailed consultation with medical experts.

He was once termed as the ‘future of Australian batting’ and had a good start to his first-class career. He played 36 first-class matches for Victoria and scored 2,350 runs at an average of 45.19. He scored seven hundreds.

The 26-year-old, however, played only one Test match. He featured in the Australia vs India Test match at Sydney in the 2020-21 season, the third of four Test matches in the tour.

In the first innings Pucovski scored 62 and was out leg before wicket to Navdeep Saini. In the second innings he scored just 10 runs before being caught by substitute wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha off Mohammed Siraj.

The Australian batter, however, never played T20 cricket for his country or his state. Although he was around since the inception of the Big Bash League and even received a contract with the Melbourne Stars in the 2020-21 season, he did not feature in any T20 game.

After a spate of head injuries, Pucovski suffered many concussion episodes. He recently suffered a concussion after being struck on the helmet during a Sheffield Shield match in March earlier this year. Bowler Riley Meredith’s delivery rose a little more than Pucovski expected and struck him on the helmet.

The injury ruled him out of the entire Australian summer and also hampered his contract and availability for the English county team Leicestershire for the English summer.

Pucovski had earlier admitted that the injuries and concussions took a toll on his mental health.

After recovering through the summer, he was offered a contract for the upcoming 2024-25 season by Cricket Australia but the contract had a clause that it had to be cleared by an expert medical panel from Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria and independent medical experts.

However, after detailed consultations with the medical panel Pucovski decided to call it a day.