Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan is participating in the Legends League Cricket (LLC) 2024 competition right now. He just declared his retirement from cricket in all its forms and gave additional details on his decision to hang up his boots. Dhawan recently acknowledged in an interview that he lacked motivation to play domestic cricket.
August 2024 marked Dhawan’s retirement from both local and international cricket. He was one of the top batsmen for the Men in Blue during his peak, having played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs, and 68 T20Is for the Indian side before retiring.
The Times of India cited Dhawan as stating, “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.”
It’s interesting to note that Dhawan led India in 12 matches—winning seven and losing three—as their 25th ODI captain. December 2022 marked his final international match for the Indian national team.
“When I reflect on the last two years of my cricket career, I realized that I wasn’t playing a lot of cricket (generally) because I was mostly focused on playing IPL to IPL and not much international cricket. “I felt like, ‘Well, I’m not playing that much cricket, so you lose the touch too,’ and I need to give it a break,” Dhawan remarked.
Not enough for me to participate: Shikhar Dhawan
In addition, Shikhar Dhawan discussed his IPL tenure. Despite being a Punjab Kings player in the IPL, he believed that a few months of cricket would not be sufficient to earn a call-up to the national team.
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“I didn’t think that playing in the IPL for another two or three months would be enough for me to go and play,” Dhawan continued.