4. Brendan Taylor

Taylor started his international career when Zimbabwe cricket was going through a period of depression. He has always been a productive run-scorer who single-handedly won a bunch of matches for Zimbabwean team. At an age of 29 when he was at the peak of his cricketing career, Taylor shocked the cricketing fraternity as he decided to call it a day.

Later on, Taylor unveiled that he took retirement in the backdrop of his concerns about his financial future. Reasonably, he is one the best cricketers to have ever represented Zimbabwe, he went on to play 23 Tests and 167 ODIs scoring 1493 and 5258 runs at an average of 34.72 and 34.82 respectively.

5. Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith was one of youngest South African skippers and a cricketer who lead his side more often than any other in history. He decided to hang his boots at the age of 33. Considering his remarkable statistics in Test cricket wherein he scored 9265 runs at an average of 48.25 with the help of 27 centuries to his credit, his fans would definitely felt that he still had a good two-to-three years of cricket left in him.

However, the southpaw didn’t quite feel the same as he bid a goodbye to the international cricket after representing the proteas in 117 Tests and 197 ODIs.