At the age of 38, Shikhar Dhawan, one of the finest white-ball openers India has ever seen, announced his retirement from international cricket. However, he has hinted at continuing to play league cricket. Dhawan last pulled on the Indian jersey in December 2022 in an ODI against Bangladesh.
A stellar career saw Shikhar Dhawan post 10,867 runs in 269 appearances with 24 centuries and 44 fifties. "It's not like it is a tough decision for me. I am not even emotional. I don't want to cry or something. But mostly it's gratitude and love. I have spent most of my life playing cricket and I feel I've reached a stage where I want to rest now – from international and domestic," he told Hindustan Times exclusively.
Three centuries in the 2004 U-19 World Cup and finishing with 505 runs in the tournament catapulted Dhawan to prominence. However, his India debut only came in 2010 during an ODI against Australia where he was dismissed for a two-ball duck. He represented the Men in Blue in four more ODIs a year later and his highest score was 51.
It was in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in 2013 that Shikhar Dhawan truly arrived scoring the fastest century on debut off 85 balls. "My Test debut is my personal favourite. I came into the team and made that record. I scored 187. I always used to dream of playing for India and making world records. I wasn't even aware of the world record. I was just happy to cement my place in the Test team," Dhawan said.
His explosive batting in Tests meant his ODI recall was just a matter of time. MS Dhoni put him alongside Rohit Sharma to open for India in the 2013 Champions Trophy. Dhawan repaid the faith with consecutive tons against South Africa and West Indies. He went to score 363 picking up the Player of the Tournament seeing India to the first ever Champions Trophy title.
Soon, Shikhar Dhawan was India's go-to guy for ICC tournaments. At the 2015 World Cup, he ended as India's highest run scorer with 412 runs from eight matches at an average of 51.5. One of his best innings came in the tournament against South Africa as he scored 137. He followed this up by smashing 338 more runs at the 2017 Champions Trophy. Alongside Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan formed the second-most successful opening pair India had ever seen in ODIs, after Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. The pair averaged 45.55 scoring 5,148 runs from 115 innings with 18 centuries between them making for the fourth-highest opening duo of all time.
Dhawan's explosive starts continued to amaze fans at the 2019 World Cup as well, before an unfortunate thumb fracture ruled him out. It stayed as his last ICC tournament. However, Gabbar didn't go out quietly. He pummelled 117 against Australia playing in pain. That was also his last ton for India. He came close to another century with scores of 98 against England and 97 against West Indies.
As time passed, his dipping strike-rate, especially in T20Is, became a cause of concern for the team management. In July of 2021, Dhawan played his last T20I for India. Although his scores of 52, 52, 46 and 40 in the last seven innings weren't bad, the team decided to move on from him. Dhawan worked hard to post 618 and 587 runs in the IPL 2020 and 2021, but, that was not enough to earn him a place in the Indian T20I setup.
The young players, the likes of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan, came through the ranks to usurp him in ODIs. In 2022, Shikhar Dhawan captained India in the West Indies and played against South Africa and New Zealand at home. Elsewhere, Gill had and outstanding season pushing him further out of India's plans. Along with Virat Kohli, Dhawan was the joint-fastest Indian to complete 1,000 ODI runs and the fastest to reach 2,000 and 3,000 run marks.
Shikhar Dhawan's Test career, despite its promising start in Mohali, concluded with 2315 runs from 40 matches, falling short of the expectations many had for him. Nevertheless, it had its highlights. During India's challenging 2014 tour of New Zealand, Dhawan showcased resilience with a gritty, chanceless 98 in Wellington under seaming and swinging conditions. He consistently performed well against Sri Lanka, scoring three of his seven career centuries against them, including a remarkable 190 in Galle in 2017. However, a difficult tour of England the following year, where he managed only 162 runs in eight innings, led to his exclusion from the Test team, and he never represented India in the format again.
By August 2023, though Dhawan had been out of national team contention, he expressed surprise at not being selected for India's Asian Games squad. Despite harboring hopes of a comeback, Dhawan has often hinted that his time with the Indian team is nearing its end, a sentiment he occasionally acknowledged with a smile.
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