Saturday marked the end of Shikhar Dhawan’s international career which he had served for more than ten years since his retirement was announced. Dhawan, a former Indian opening batsman, reminisced on the memories of his successful tenure with India, including a five-year period during which he scored 100 centuries alongside Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
“We had an amazing journey together. In 5 years, I remember very well that Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and myself managed to score over 100 century,” said Shikhar Dhawan in The Hindustan Times. “During that moment Ravi (Shastri) Bhai acted as our coach.” Having declared his resignation through a video message on social media platforms, Dhawan expressed gratitude towards those people who were instrumental in her career.
“My career has been shaped by several coaches. Duncan Fletcher, Sanjay Bangar and Vikram Rathour are some of them Rahul Dravid. Moreover, there are many other fielding coaches that helped me with my batting techniques,” he recognized all who influenced him.
“Even NCA (National Cricket Academy) played a major role in my career. I got to know about the regime and rehabilitation procedures whenever I had injuries. Lastly I appreciate BCCI for their support” added Shikhar Dhawan.
Between June 2013 and June 2019 trio of Dhawan (23 centuries), Rohit(30)and Kohli(49) together scored102 hundreds across all three formats
Shikhar Dhawan’s decline started after the World Cup in 2019 alongside the emergence of openers like Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
TIMELINE OF DHAWAN’S CAREER FROM 2010 TO 2019
- October 20th , 2010: Second ball duck vs Australia at Vishakhapatnam on ODI debut; Dropped; Missed next nineteen matches including 2011 World Cup.
- In the West Indies in 2011, he got scores of 51,3,4 and 11. After that he missed out on the next thirty nine consecutive matches.
- In the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy after two years’ absence.
- Missed 8 successive matches in 2016-17 — three against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe and five against New Zealand
- Six back to back matches missed in the year 2017-18.
- -Injured (left thumb) when scoring a century against Australia at The Oval during the 2019 World Cup. He didn’t come for fielding duty and was ruled out for the rest of the tournament
- Dhawan did not play three straight ODIs vs West Indies in ‘19/‘20 season
Dhawan played Test cricket for India on thirty-four occasions and made 2315 runs averaging at 40.61 with seven tons as well as five fifties. In terms of limited-over internationals, Dhawan played one hundred sixty-seven ODI’s and sixty-eight T20I’s for his country, where he scored 6793 and 1759 respectively. He averaged 44.11 in ODIs but only managed 27.92 in T20Is.
Dhawan has made seventeen centuries in limited overs cricket – all of which have been in ODIs. Furthermore, he has scored thirty-nine fifties in ODIs along with five half-centuries during T20Is .
