Some assert that outstanding athletes are made up of, in part, a little bit of selfishness. Nevertheless, despite several flashes of genius and an overly optimistic attitude sometimes, Shikhar Dhawan has remained selfless throughout his career with no exaggerated excesses.
After being left out of the Indian team for some time, the pragmatic 38-year-old who in his prime had left the greatest bowlers helpless and in awe opted to embrace his fate and retire from all forms of cricket.
“We know about your guts. Show us some,” Sachin Tendulkar told him as he presented Dhawan with the Test cap according to PTI.
More than guts were shown indeed.
Through his appearances on IPL matches, local circuit games, and international career, he was characterized by resilience, inventiveness unselfishness as well as readiness to make sacrifices fo,r the team. He did it while smiling all through.
One would be hard-pressed to find any mysterious tweets on his social media platforms after being snubbed by India selectors. No witty jabs or sarcastic posts-nothing fancy and that was not how he rolled even when going through personal storms. Throughout that whole period, they stood by him and he presented himself quite respectfully.
He would say prayers for successful tournaments for his team and wish them well . If whether or not ,he was part of it made no difference at all .
In this connection one can look into a heartfelt letter which he wrote upon the announcement of Indian squad for last year’s home ODI World Cup He followed suit before India claimed victory in this year’s T20 World Cup in America bringing their ICC title drought to an end after 11 years,
His retirement quote sums up his character best.
“…And that’s why I tell myself, don’t be sad that you won’t play for India again but be happy that you played for your country. And that’s the biggest thing for me, that I played,” he said in his concluding remarks in the social media post on Saturday morning.
By the way, Dhawan was named player of the tournament for his performances at the top of the order in seaming conditions during the previous time India won an ICC title, which was the 2013 Champions Trophy in England.
The thigh-clap celebration became a unique trademark of Indian cricket’s ‘Gabbar’ but he started poorly at international level by getting out for a two ball duck against Australia at Visakhapatnam in an ODI.
But Dhawan returned to the Indian team in 2013 and solidified his spot in all three formats with some outstanding performances, after his early setbacks in the top division
His career-best 185 against Australia on Test debut at Mohali where he scored his century off only 85 deliveries; a deluge of boundaries marked it as his highlight.
Although, Dhawan might have been out on his test debut before facing a single delivery. The debutant was caught unawares by Mitchell Starc’s first delivery of India’s innings which slipped out of his hand and hit non-striker’s stumps.
The Australians did not appeal and Dhawan took advantage of that to score his fastest Test debut century ever.
Although he had a memorable debut in Test cricket, he found his niche in One Day Internationals (ODIs) where he scored 6793 runs at an average of 44.11 with 39 fifties and 17 hundreds.
Averaging 40.61 in the course of his 2315 Test runs that featured seven hundreds, Dhawan was highly anticipated by the Indian cricket authorities as well as fans, following his stunning entry into Tests. Nevertheless, throughout his nearly fourteen year old career, Dhawan never said a single word about being unsatisfied with himself.
There is no doubt that when he looks back on it all, some of those moments will remain with him forever such as his incredible innings of 137 at the MCG during the World Cup game against South Africa’s pace duo Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel in 2015.
Perhaps one of his most important games for India came during the World Cup in England last year when he made a hundred and seventeen off one hundred and nine balls against Australia at The Oval.
He is different from Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma among others due to three things; first off, despite leaving a huge legacy behind them they chose to retire but this isn’t what he did after quitting playing like other two players.
