The legendary Indian opener, famously known as “Gabbar” in Indian cricket, Shikhar Dhawan, has recently announced his retirement from international cricket. News of the sudden retirement from the international front has taken the fans by surprise, also sending shock waves among fellow cricketers. Many of the cricketers who rose to the stage at the same time continue their games, but not Dhawan.
Recently, in a national media interview, Dhawan explained his reasons for retirement. Immediately after that, it sparked cricketing fraternity debate: what had gone wrong with his emotions during that transition?
Also Read : Shikhar Dhawan announces retirement from cricket
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja also played much before Dhawan started. But Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ajinkya Rahane are yet to retire. But it was indeed surprising for everyone when he announced that he would hang up his boots both in international and domestic cricket. He had said nothing to them earlier but shared his views later.
Dhawan stated, “I played fewer international matches and more IPL games in the last two years of my career. In my mind, I had always thought of having a longer career with more games, but I needed rest badly and, therefore, could not play as many games and suffered from poor form in cricket.”. I have lost interest in playing domestic cricket to get into the Indian team, which is another reason why I quit it altogether. Of late, I was subjected to mental pressure. Now, I am happy with the success achieved so far in my career, but do have one regret about not having won the World Cup.
Also Read : Yuvraj Singh: She Pursued Me Even After I Said No!’
Dhawan has accumulated 2,315 runs in Test matches over 34 appearances. He has run for 6,793 runs in 167 innings while playing ODIs. From his innings, he has run for 1,759 runs in T20Is from his 68 innings. Overall, he has made 7 Test match centuries and 17 in ODIs. So far, he has played in 222 IPL fixtures where he has scored 6,769 runs with 2 IPL centuries and 51 half-centuries. Dhawan will still be seen batting when he goes to play in the IPL despite announcing his retirement from international as well as domestic games. He played for Punjab Kings last year and is now playing Legends League Cricket.
