2024-08-25 02:37:33
New Delhi: Shikhar Dhawan, known as Gabbar of the Indian cricket team, suddenly announced his retirement from domestic and international cricket today i.e. on 24 August. Dhawan shared an emotional video on Instagram and said goodbye to his brilliant career with a broken heart. He announced his retirement while thanking his gurus, teammates, fans, Delhi and the cricket board of India. Dhawan last played an international match 632 days ago on 10 December 2022 in the ODI series against Bangladesh.Fame and love and support from all: Shikhar Dhawan’s retirement speech
Announcing his retirement, he said- I always had only one goal in my mind that I should play for India and I achieved this position thanks to many people. First of all my family, my childhood coaches Tarak Sinha and Madan Sharma… I learned cricket under their guidance. Then my entire team with whom I played for years… got fame and everyone’s love and support. As it is said that to move forward in the story you have to turn the pages. So, I am doing the same, I am announcing my retirement from international and domestic cricket.
Shikhar Dhawan: Shikhar Dhawan suddenly retired from cricket, now Gabbar’s bat will never work for Team India
Playing for India is the biggest achievement
He further said- Now that I am saying goodbye to my cricket journey, I am satisfied that I played a lot for my country. I am really grateful to BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and DDCA (Delhi and District Cricket Association) for giving me this opportunity and to all my fans for their love and support. All I tell myself is that don’t be sad that you will not be able to play for your country again, but always be happy that you played for your country. And this is the biggest achievement for me that I played.
Why did Shikhar Dhawan suddenly retire from international cricket?
He was struggling to make a comeback in international cricket for a long time, but after the arrival of young openers like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, his comeback had become difficult. On the other hand, the management of the Indian cricket team wanted to prepare the youth in view of the upcoming ICC events. This is the reason why Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli also made way for the youth by retiring from T20 cricket. Shikhar Dhawan knew that now his return to international cricket is hardly possible. He was not playing domestic cricket and his performance for Punjab Kings in the IPL was not very good. It is possible that the Punjab team may also release him before the mega auction for IPL 2025. These were the reasons why Shikhar Dhawan decided to hang up his bat. Earlier he had lost his place to Shubman Gill.
Shikhar Dhawan’s impressive career stats
Dhawan broke many records on his Test debut on March 16, 2013. He set the record for the fastest century by a player on Test debut off just 85 balls and won the coveted ‘Golden Bat’ for scoring the most runs in two consecutive seasons. The left-handed batsman was nicknamed ‘Mr ICC’ for his stellar performances for India in the Champions Trophy in 2013 and 2017. Dhawan was also India’s highest run-scorer in the 2015 ODI World Cup. He represented India in 167 ODIs and scored 6793 runs at an average of 44.11 and a strike rate of 91.35, including seven centuries and five fifties. He also played 68 T20 Internationals and scored 1759 runs at an average of 27.92 and a strike rate of 126.36, including 11 fifties. In 34 Tests, Dhawan scored 2315 runs at an average of 40.61.