Gilchrist retains perfect sense of timing

His team mates and even members of his own family were surprised by his decision, yet it was typical of a man who has always defied convention.

Just as he did whenever he was batting, Gilchrist opted to walk before the finger was raised, leaving on his own terms with his reputation intact.

Gilchrist is already assured of his place in cricketing folklore as one of the greatest players to embrace the game and could easily have played on for several more seasons.

But after 96 Tests and 277 ODIs, he had nothing left to prove and at age 36, his body was starting to creak.

His announcement was initially greeted by shock then a flood of tributes from around the world, all proclaiming him as the greatest wicketkeeper-batsmen of all time.

His statistics bear testimony to his incredible talent both as a wicketkeeper and a batsman but it was the manner, rather than the cold numbers, of his performances that was most significant.

He holds the world record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in both Tests and ODIs as well as a stack of batting records.

He scored 5,570 Test runs at an average of 47.60, with 17 hundreds and had a highest score of 204 not out.

LETHAL BATTING

He also took 416 Test dismissals and was lethal with the bat, becoming the only player to hit 100 sixes in Tests as well as setting the second fastest hundreds and double-centuries.

The 36-year-old captained Australia both in Tests and ODI cricket and his record in the abbreviated form of the game, where he opened the batting, is equally as imposing.

He has made 9,297 runs and taken 454 dismissals from 277 appearances and played in three consecutive World Cup winning teams.

Gilchrist’s great legacy to the game is that he revolutionised Test cricket with his explosive lower-order batting, scoring at a career strike rate of 81.95 runs per 100 balls.

He could transform matches in less than an hour and was one of a handful of players who could win matches virtually by himself.

He was in the Australian ODI team for three years before he broke into the Test side but was quick to make up for lost time.

In just his second Test, against Pakistan in Hobart in 1999, he clubbed an unbeaten 149 to lead Australia to an extraordinary last-day win.

Three years later, in Johannesburg, he smashed 204 not out off 212 balls, setting a world record for the fastest double century that has since been surpassed.

He provided another great demonstration of his extraordinary power with a century off 57 balls in the third Ashes test at Perth in 2006, missing the world record by one ball.

In the 2007 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Barbados, he made a brutal 149 to steer his team to their third successive title four years after he had walked in a World Cup semi-final against the same team in Port Elizabeth.