Shikhar Dhawan told why he suddenly announced his retirement, domestic cricket was the reason

Jodhpur: Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday revealed that he had lost the “motivation” to play domestic cricket to make it to the national team and that was the reason he decided to retire from the game last month. After playing 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is for India between 2013 and 2022, Dhawan, 38, decided to retire from international and domestic cricket in August.

Dhawan did not want to play domestic cricket

“I did not want to play domestic cricket which I started playing at the age of 18 or 19. I did not have the motivation to play this format of cricket,” Dhawan told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the retired cricket tournament Legends League Cricket.

Dhawan played his last match for Team India in December 2022

Dhawan became India's 25th ODI captain in an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2021 when he took over from Rohit as the captain. He led the team in 12 matches in which India won seven and lost three. However, before the ODI World Cup last year, Dhawan had to make way for young batsman Shubman Gill in the team. His last international match for India was in December 2022.

Did not get opportunities in international cricket in the last two years

The opener said, 'If I look back, in the last two years I was not playing much international cricket and I was only playing IPL so I was not playing much cricket (overall).' He scored 6769 runs in 222 matches in the IPL including two centuries and 51 half-centuries. His 768 fours in the tournament are the most by any batsman and he also achieved the feat of becoming the first batsman to score consecutive centuries in the IPL.