Shikhar Dhawan speaks about Rohit Sharma, reveals why he retired: 'Did not want to play domestic cricket'

Shikhar Dhawan has opened up on the reason why he retired from international cricket, saying that there was no motivation left in him to play domestic cricket.

The 38-year-old said he wasn't actively playing cricket since the last few years, and had hence lost his touch. The former Delhi batter also added that playing and performing in the highly competitive IPL was also not easy because of his absence from domestic cricket.

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“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,” Shikhar Dhawan told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket (LLC).

“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),” said Dhawan, who last played for India in December 2022.

“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. 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,” Dhawan, who played just five IPL 2024 matches due to injury, added.

Further, the former opener said he was satisfied with his achievements, even though he rued not winning the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cups with India.

“So that was the reason for me to just call it off, and yeah, I was very happy and satisfied and content with whatever I achieved in my career, and very, very grateful for everything. Of course, we would have loved to win the World Cup."

Further, Shikhar Dhawan also praised Rohit Sharma and his captaincy. He credited him for ending India's 13-year wait for a. World Cup trophy by winning the T200 World Cup 2024 in June.

He’s a great captain, and so happy that he led the team and won the World Cup for our nation. We were waiting for that World Cup for a long time. We were very close in (winning) the ODI World Cup as well, and now we achieved that goal in T20Is,” Dhawan said.

“He’s a very experienced captain, and I’m sure all the boys love him as a leader and he has done a phenomenal job for the Indian team,” he added.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan opened together in 115 ODI innings for India, and scored 5148 runs at an average of 45.55. They stitched a total of 18 hundred-plus partnerships. They are the fourth most successful opening pair in ODI cricket history.