Shikhar Dhawan, Gabbar to his fans, ends a breezy innings

‘We will miss you, Gabbar,’ a fan wrote on social media as Shikhar Dhawan, the dashing Indian opener, called time on his international and domestic career with a poignant video message on Instagram on Saturday, 24 August. Yes, he was merely echoing the sentiments of the country’s cricket fraternity as well as his teammates.   

At 38, he had certainly reached the end of his international career — particularly with Indian cricket set for a transformation under his erstwhile teammate Gautam Gambhir, even though his aura as an IPL giant still holds good. It often flies under the radar that he is second in the list of all-time run getters in the 17-year history of the biggest T20 league in the world, with 6,769 runs accumulated for five franchises in all, with only Virat Kohli (8,004) ahead of him and Rohit Sharma (6,628) in third position.

Together with Rohit, Dhawan had forged one of the most successful opening combinations in ODIs under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and this format had brought out the best of the southpaw, a combination of uninhibited stroke play and the maturity to pace his innings in challenging situations. Till the recent T20 World Cup triumph in the West Indies ended a title drought, India’s last triumph in a major ICC tournament was in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in England where Dhawan was the Player of the Tournament with 363 runs, including back-to-back centuries.

‘’It’s not like it is a tough decision for me,’’ Dhawan said in an interview with Hindustan Times.  ‘’I am not even emotional. I don’t want to cry or something, but mostly it’s gratitude and love. I have spent most of my life playing cricket and I feel I’ve reached a stage where I want to rest now – from international and domestic,’’ said Dhawan, and one really cannot grudge him that.

‘’I am announcing my retirement from international and domestic cricket. As I bid farewell to my cricketing journey, I have peace in my heart. I played a lot for my country. I only say this to myself, that you don’t need to be upset about not playing for your country again, but be happy that you had the opportunity to do so,’’ he concludes his message.

There is a lot that this self-effacing character, whose signature celebration of thumping the leg and twirling the designer moustache had become a style statement over the years, had gone through on the personal front. Late last year, he was granted divorce from his wife of eight years, Melbourne-based Ayesha Mukherjee, while Dhawan slowly started slipping away from the radar for international selection despite being a prolific scorer at the domestic level.

One cannot help but feel that he was being taken for granted a little at times, being handed the captaincy of a second-string team to Sri Lanka during the pandemic and then being overlooked as a matter of convenience. His seniority as a player saw him being named captain of a number of IPL franchises that he has played for, the last one being with Punjab Kings, but Dhawan came across as someone who failed to crack the whip.

However, it’s the bat with which Dhawan managed to do most of the talking. In 167 ODIs, Dhawan had racked up 6,793 runs at an average of 44.1 including 17 centuries and 39 fifties. He was a relatively late entrant in Tests but with a flourish (a breezy century against Australia on debut), but stitched up some memorable partnerships with Murali Vijay on way to 2315 runs in 34 matches (average of 40.6 with seven tons and five half-centuries).

In the T20I format which became his calling card in later years, Dhawan scored 1759 runs in 68 appearances at an average of 27.9, including 11 fifties.

Going forward, it’s a no brainer that Gabbar the entertainer will be much in demand among the mushrooming overseas T20 leagues and legends’ leagues throughout the world. It’s not long before Dhawan will be revelling in the company of some of his peers like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina or Robin Uthappa again.

Thanks for all the entertainment!