Shikhar Dhawan Retirement: One of India’s most dangerous white-ball openers, Shikhar Dhawan is a seasoned player who has played in 167 ODIs, 34 Tests, and 68 ODIs.
One of the best white-ball openers in India, Shikhar Dhawan, has declared his retirement from international cricket. The 38-year-old Dhawan stated that even though he is leaving the Indian national team, he made references to playing league cricket, most notably the Indian Premier League.
Shikhar Dhawan departs having amassed 10,867 runs from 269 games, including 24 centuries, 44 fifties, and as one of the cornerstones of Indian batting over the previous ten years. December 2022 marked his last ODI match for India against Bangladesh.
With three centuries and 505 runs during the 2004 U-19 World Cup, Shikhar Dhawan became well-known. In an ODI against Australia in 2010, Dhawan, a late bloomer, got out for a two-ball duck while making his ODI debut for India.
Shikhar Dhawan ODI Career
He played for India against the West Indies in four additional One-Day Internationals (ODIs) a year later, with a best score of 51. But Dhawan didn’t make an impact until the 2013 Border-Gavaskar Trophy match against Australia, when he struck the quickest century on debut (off 85 balls).
Dhawan’s outstanding start to the Tests allowed for his comeback for the ODIs. MS Dhoni unveiled a brand-new opening duo of Dhawan and Rohit Sharma in the 2013 Champions Trophy. After Dhawan scored two straight hundreds against West Indies and South Africa, the rest is, as they say, history.
As India won the trophy for the first time, Dhawan went on to score 363 runs and win Player of the Tournament. Dhawan made a reputation for himself as India’s ICC tournament go-to player. With 412 runs from eight matches at an average of 51.5, he became India’s leading scorer at the 2015 World Cup. One of the greatest centuries of his career was a thundering 137 versus South Africa.
Dhawan continued his unstoppable run of form at the 2017 Champions Trophy, smashing 338 more runs. After Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, Dhawan and Rohit made up India’s second-most successful opening combination in one-day international cricket. In actuality, Rohit and Dhawan rank as the fourth-highest opening pair of all time with their 5148 runs from 115 innings at an average of 45.55 and 18 hundreds.
How Dhawan dropped out of the top spot?
Dhawan was in good shape before regretfully withdrawing from the 2019 World Cup due to a fractured thumb. Even though it ended up being Dhawan’s last ICC tournament, he left a lasting impression. He played in pain, but his century against Australia was a knock for the ages. Additionally, it was the last century of Shikhar Dhawan in ODI for India.
He never reached another three-figure score, but he came close with scores of 98 against England and 97 against the West Indies. Dhawan’s declining strike rate over time raised questions, particularly in Twenty20 Internationals. In July 2021, he participated in his final Twenty20 international match.
Despite his impressive performance, which included 52, 52, 46, and 40 in the final seven innings, the management decided to let him go. Dhawan lit up the scoreboard in the IPL 2020 and 2021, scoring 618 and 587 runs, respectively, but it wasn’t enough to get him back into the Indian T20I lineup.
Dhawan progressively lost ground as the stocks of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan surged in ODIs. He played in home series against South Africa and New Zealand in 2022 and led India in the West Indies. But in addition to keeping Dhawan out of the World Cup preparations, Gill’s incredible season also signaled the end of his ODI career.
Shikhar Dhawan Milestone
Along with Virat Kohli, he was the fastest Indian to reach the 1000 ODI run milestone and the 2000 and 3000-run marks. After that spectacular start in Mohali, Dhawan’s Test career didn’t quite turn out as many had hoped (2315 runs from 40 matches). It did, however, have its moments.
In 2014, when India started a rigorous tour of New Zealand, Dhawan struck a hard-earned and unlucky 98 in Wellington’s seaming and swinging conditions. He scored three of his seven hundred in the career against the Sri Lankan bowling attack, including a massive 190 in Galle in 2017.
Dhawan expressed “shock” at not being selected in India’s Asian Games squad in August 2023, although he had been forgotten about. Even if he still had hopes of making a return, Dhawan would repeatedly indicate that his time with the Indian squad was up, frequently grinning as he did so.
The retirement of Shikhar Dhawan is shocking news for his fans. Now, we are only able to see Gabbar most probably in the future Indian Premier Leagues.
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