Shikhar Dhawan: India’s legendary opener Shikhar Dhawan, while explaining his decision to retire from all forms of cricket, said that he did not have the “motivation” left to play domestic cricket or the Indian Premier League (IPL). Dhawan, who retired in August at the age of 38, spoke openly about his decision while speaking on the sidelines of the Legends League cricket event.
Former opener Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday revealed that he did not have the “motivation” left 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. Dhawan, who is playing in the Legends League tournament, said in an interview to PTI, “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.”
Shikhar Dhawan dominated ICC tournaments
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. Shikhar Dhawan led India in 12 ODIs, winning 7 and losing 3 matches.
The opener said, “If I look back, in the last two years I was not playing much international cricket and I was just playing IPL so I was not playing much cricket (overall).”
Despite his successful stint as captain, Dhawan’s international career gradually slowed down. He started being ignored from this 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.