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Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan revealed why he opted to call it quits on his cricketing career. Notably, the 38-year-old batter who led Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in August. Recently, he opened up on the decision and revealed that he lacked ‘inspiration’ to continue playing domestic cricket or even the Indian Premier League. After his retirement, Dhawan joined the Legends League Cricket, where he is leading Gujarat Giants.
Dhawan, a true stalwart of Indian cricket, played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is between 2013 and 2022. Fondly called Gabbar, Dhawan left an important mark for himself in international cricket. The 38-year-old was missing in action for more than two years, and when he felt right, the cricketer called time on his career via an emotional video.
Didn't have that inspiration from inside to play: Shikhar Dhawan
The former Indian batter recently opened up on his decision of retiring, where he revealed that he didn’t have any inspiration left to play domestic cricket as well as the IPL. Dhawan, who led Punjab Kings in the IPL, told PTI, "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.” He last appeared for India in December 2022. Speaking about the later phase of his career, he said, "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).”
He added, "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.” Dhawan spoke about his IPL career and said, "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.”
