Shikhar Dhawan announces retirement from domestic cricket: Team India’s ‘Gabbar’ i.e. Shikhar Dhawan released a 1 minute 17 second video on Saturday (24 August) morning at 7:32 am and said that he will no longer play international and domestic cricket. In this way, he officially announced his retirement. But Gabbar did not say anything about his IPL future.
In such a situation, there is a big possibility that Shikhar Dhawan can be seen playing in IPL 2025 as well. Keep in mind here that he was seen playing any kind of competitive cricket in IPL 2024.
Then he captained Punjab Kings. However, he could play only the first 5 matches in IPL. When he got injured, Sam Curran took over the command of the team.
Since Shikhar did not talk about the Indian Premier League (IPL) anywhere in the 1 minute 17 second retirement video, it is believed that he will continue playing in the T20 league.
As I close this chapter of my cricketing journey, I carry with me countless memories and gratitude. Thank you for the love and support! Jai Hind! 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/QKxRH55Lgx
— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) August 24, 2024
What did Shikhar Dhawan say in his retirement video?
Shikhar Dhawan said in a 1 minute 17 second video- Namaskar everyone… Today I am standing at such a turning point. From where when I look back, I see only memories, and when I look forward, I see the whole world… I always had only one goal, to play for India. That happened too, for this I am thankful to many people, first of all my family, my childhood coach Tarak Sinha ji… Madan Sharma ji, under whom I learned cricket.
In this video, Gabbar further talked about his experience of playing for Team India. Dhawan said- After playing for the team, I got the love of you fans. But they say that it is necessary to turn the pages to move forward in the story. I am also going to do the same.
In this video message, Shikhar Dhawan also said that he is happy in his heart that he played cricket for the country to his heart’s content. Dhawan said- I am very grateful to BCCI (Board of Cricket Control in India) and DDCA (Delhi and District Cricket Association), who gave me a chance and to all the fans… I tell myself that you should not be sad that you will not play for your country again, but keep the happiness of the fact that you played for the country and this is the biggest thing for me.
Shikhar Dhawan put an end to his 13 year long career
Dhawan bid farewell to his 13-year international career on Saturday morning. Dhawan last played a competitive match in April this year while leading Punjab Kings in IPL 2024. He has scored 24 international centuries (17 in ODIs and seven in Tests) in 269 matches.
Dhawan’s bat was a star in ODIs, as he is one of only eight batsmen in the history of this format to score more than 5000 runs at an average of over 40 and a strike rate of over 90 (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the other Indians on this list). He has not played for India since the ODI series against Bangladesh in December 2022.
Dhawan played his last T20 International for India against Sri Lanka in Colombo on 29 July 2021. He played this match as captain. Dhawan’s last Test match was against England at the Oval in September 2018.
Dhawan has played in every format of cricket, but his ODI stats far surpass his records in the other two formats, even though it was in Tests when he burst onto the scene with an 85-ball hundred against Australia in Mohali, the fastest century by a Test debutant.
International Cricket Record of Shikhar Dhawan
34 Tests, 2315 runs, 40.61 average, 7 centuries, 5 half-centuries
167 ODIs, 6793 runs, 44.11 average, 17 centuries, 39 half-centuries
68 T20s, 1759 runs, 27.92 average, 0 centuries, 11 half-centuries