'Didn't have inspiration left to play domestic cricket for national spot'

PTI Jodhpur: Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday revealed that he didn't have the "inspiration" left to take the domestic cricket route for a place in the national side and that was the reason why he chose to retire from the game last month. The 38-year-old Dhawan retired from international and domestic cricket late in August after having played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is for India between 2013 and 2022. "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," Dhawan told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket, an event for retired cricketers that he signed up for after calling it quits from the game internationally.

Dhawan became India's 25th ODI skipper in an ODI against Sri Lanka in June 2021 when he stood in for Rohit Sharma and went on to lead the country in 12 matches, winning seven and losing three. However, before the ODI World Cup last year, Dhawan had to make way for a younger batter in Shubman Gill. His last international appearance for India was in December 2022. "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 overall," said the big-hitting opener. He left the arena as a bonafide IPL legend, after appearing in 222 matches, that yielded 6769 runs, including two hundreds and 51 half centuries. His 768 fours in the tournament are the highest by any batter and he also holds the distinction of being the first to hit consecutive hundreds in the event.

"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," he said as he opened about his mindset before announcing the big decision. Dhawan, who captained Punjab Kings in a few games last year, said he also realised that practising two-three months for the IPL would not be enough for him.