Legendary India opener Shikhar Dhawan has opened up about his decision to retire from all forms of cricket, saying he had no “motivation” left to play domestic cricket or the Indian Premier League (IPL). Dhawan, who retired in August at the age of 38, opened up about his decision while speaking on the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket event.
Former opener Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday revealed that he no longer had the “motivation” to play domestic cricket to make it to the national team and that was the reason he decided to retire from the game last month. “I did not want to play domestic cricket which I started playing at the age of 18 or 19. I did not have the motivation to play this format of cricket,” Dhawan, who is playing in the Legends League tournament, said in an interview to PTI.
Shikhar Dhawan dominated the ICC tournament
Shikhar Dhawan emerged as one of India’s leading white-ball players, especially in ICC tournaments, where he has the highest average (65.15) among all Indian batsmen. During his illustrious career, he captained the team in the absence of Rohit Sharma in the 2021 series against Sri Lanka. Dhawan led India in 12 ODIs, winning seven and losing three.
“If I look back, in the last two years I was not playing much international cricket and I was only playing the IPL so I was not playing much cricket (overall),” the opener said.
Despite his successful tenure as captain, Dhawan’s international career gradually slowed down. He was ignored from the team after the arrival of players like Shubman Gill. Dhawan played his last match for India in December 2022, marking the end of an important era for Indian cricket.