Didn’t have inspiration to play IPL and domestic cricket: Shikhar Dhawan

There are three cricketers - captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja - in the current Indian side who made their international debuts before Shikhar Dhawan.

Then there are the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane who are no longer in consideration for selection but continue to ply their trade in domestic cricket and the IPL and haven't announced their official retirement yet.

The list of retired Indian cricketers playing only the IPL is also quite illustrious. It includes players like MS Dhoni, Piyush Chawla, and Amit Mishra. Dhawan is distinctively different from them. He not only announced his international retirement when he was fit and in decent form but also decided not to continue playing in the IPL. Notably, he was the captain of the Punjab Kings barely a few months ago.

The 38-year-old retired in August after having played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is for India between 2013 and 2022.

"I didn't want to play domestic cricket, which I started playing at the age of 18 or 19 and I didn't have that inspiration from inside to play that (form of) cricket," Dhawan told PTI.

Dhawan became India's 25th ODI skipper in an ODI against Sri Lanka in June 2021 when he stood in for Rohit Sharma and went on to lead the country in 12 matches, winning seven and losing three.

However, before the ODI World Cup last year, Dhawan had to make way for a younger batter in Shubman Gill. His last international appearance for India was in December 2022.

"If I look back, the last two years of my cricketing career, I wasn't playing much of international cricket and I was playing IPL to IPL, so I wasn't playing much of cricket (overall)," said the big-hitting opener.

He left the arena as a bonafide IPL legend, after appearing in 222 matches, that yielded 6769 runs, including two hundreds and 51 half centuries.

His 768 fours in the tournament are the highest by any batter, and he is also the first to hit consecutive hundreds in the event.

"I thought that, 'alright, I've played enough, and I need to give it a break because I'm not playing that much cricket, so you lose the touch as well," he said as he opened about his mindset before announcing the big decision.

Dhawan said he also realised that practising two to three months for the IPL would not be enough for him to be in contention for a national call-up.

"I thought that continuing IPL and just coming up with two, three months of hard work won't be enough for me to go and play," he said.

Dhawan, who had a terrific average of 65.15 -- highest among all Indian batters ever in ICC limited-overs events -- reiterated that he was content with the way his journey ended.

"So that was the reason for me to just call it off, and yeah, I was very happy and satisfied and content with whatever I achieved in my career, and very, very grateful for everything," he said.

"Of course, we would have loved to win the World Cup," said Dhawan, who played in the 2015 and 2019 iterations of the ODI World Cup and was also a member of India's title-winning side in the 2013 Champions Trophy.

The former India opener Dhawan stands eighth in the overall list of highest partnership runs in career for any wicket with India captain Rohit Sharma, having added 5,193 runs at 45.15 in 117 matches with 18 century and 15 half-centuries stands.

Dhawan heaps praise on captain Rohit

Dhawan said he was pleased to see Rohit's career hitting further highs, the highlight being India's T20 World Cup win under his leadership.

"He's a great captain, and so happy that he led the team and won the World Cup for our nation. We were waiting for that World Cup for a long time. We were very close in (winning) the ODI World Cup as well, and now we achieved that goal in T20Is," Dhawan said.

"He's a very experienced captain, and I'm sure all the boys love him as a leader and he has done a phenomenal job for the Indian team," he added.