Former England captain Michael Vaughan confirmed his retirement from all forms of cricket on Tuesday.The 34-year-old batsman led England to a national record 26 Test wins from 51 matches, notably the victorious 2005 Ashes campaign against Australia.

“After a great deal of consideration, I’ve decided that now is the right time to retire from cricket,” Vaughan said. “It has been an enormous privilege to have played for and captained my country and this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.

“Having played almost nonstop for sixteen seasons, I feel that the time is right for the focus to shift to the next generation. We have some fantastic talent coming through the English countries and, with the next Ashes series upon us, now is the time for the younger players to rise to the challenge of building on the success achieved in English cricket in the last few years.”

Last week, Vaughan was left out of England’s 16-man training squad for the upcoming Ashes series after having struggled to find form for Yorkshire in the county championship. He has scored only 147 runs in seven first-class innings this season.

“I know what a tough decision this will have been for him as he took so much pleasure and pride in representing his country,” current England captain Andrew Strauss said. “I learned a great deal from watching him captain the side for five years at close hand, and his ability to identify a new strategy for outwitting the opposition or bring the best out of his own players was a priceless asset.

“But more than anything we as players will miss the enormous sense of fun and enjoyment that Michael brought to the dressing room. He will be missed by everyone connected with the team and we wish him every success in his future career.”