According to former Indian opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan, his international career was akin to a beautiful journey, and he believes that partnering with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli was one of its highlights. He remembered that during a period of five years, they together made up one hundred international hundreds.
Having last appeared for India in December 2022, Dhawan announced his retirement from both international and domestic cricket on August 24, Saturday. The announcement was made by him via social media video message.
In an interview given to Hindustan Times, the past Indian opener looked back on his glorious career, as well as the time when Rohit and Kohli were part of the team that managed to score a hundred tons in five years.
“I clearly remember that Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and I scored 100 centuries in 5 years. Ravi [Shastri] bhai was our coach then. Even NCA has played such a huge role, understood how training and rehab is done whenever I got injured. And a big thank you to the BCCI as well,” Dhawan said in the interview.
Shikhar Dhawan said, "I clearly remember Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and I scored 100 centuries in 5 years. It was a beautiful journey, I want to thank them all and the BCCI". (HT). pic.twitter.com/PdwNJkQ30M
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 24, 2024
The opening batsman reached his high from 2013 to 2019. During this time, he participated in 219 games representing India and made 9263 runs at the average rate of 40.44, including 24 centuries. Kohli in that phase made above 16000 runs in 276 outings including 54 tons. Rohit on the other hand scored 11209 runs from 236 matches helped by 36 hundreds.
“Popped painkillers and scored 117” –Shikhar Dhawan selects his top innings in international cricket
The favourite innings of Shikhar Dhawan, a former opener for India, is the century he scored against Australia at The Oval during the 2019 ODI World Cup. Dhawan, who is currently 38 noted highly on that match because he had fractured his thumb when he was only in his 20s and took painkillers while playing.
On Saturday, August 24th, Dhawan made his retirement announcement from both domestic and international cricket via a social media post on his official handles. In his career, the left-handed batsman represented India in 34 Tests matches, 167 ODIs, and 68 T20Is.
During an interview with Hindustan Times, the batter was asked to pick one of his best innings internationally. While acknowledging that there are quite a few many others that he enjoyed playing as well but went straight for the century against Australia at the 2019 World Cup even though he had broken his thumb at that time.
“I have a few favorite innings that are close to my heart, especially the 2019 World Cup. We were playing a match against Australia. I was batting on 25 when I broke my thumb. The ball came at 150 clicks and hit my here (pointing towards his left thumb). I popped painkillers and scored 117 from there,” the 38-year-old said.
By the way, Dhawan’s hundred in this match was his last three-figure score in international cricket. Scored 117 from 109 deliveries hitting 16 boundaries, therefore India defeated Australia by 36 runs. The opener was ruled out for the rest of the tournament.
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