India batter announces retirement from all cricket

India batter Shikhar Dhawan has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Saturday, 24 August.

The southpaw took to social media to convey the heartfelt decision. The 38-year-old's international career spanned over 12 years with him featuring in 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is, scoring 10,867 runs.

On a video posted on his social media account, Dhawan said, "I am standing at that juncture in my life where I can only see the past memories. My dream was always to play for India and it came true and for that I'm grateful to a lot of people. My family, my coaches Tarak Sinha and Madan Sharma, under whom I learnt to play cricket. Also my team, the people I played with for years. I got another family in them. I got fame and fortune and the love of everyone.

"But it's important to turn the page to move forward in life and that's why I am announcing my retirement from international and domestic cricket.

"And now that I'm concluding my cricket journey, there's peace in my heart, that I played a lot for my country. I'm grateful to all my fans for all the love. I've told myself don't feel sad that you won't play for India anymore, but feel happy that you played for the country."

Dhawan burst onto the international scene in the 2004 ICC U19 Men's Cricket World Cup where he scored over 500 runs, including three centuries. Six years later he made his India debut in 2010 in an ODI against Australia in Visakhapatnam.

He got his Test debut in March 2013, an unforgettable occasion as smashed the fastest Test century on debut, in only 85 balls.

Dhawan was known as an ODI specialist, lighting up the Champions Trophy 2013, helping India to a title win and ending up has the highest run-scorer with 363 runs at 90.75. He also went on star in other tournaments such as Asia Cup 2014, Cricket World Cup 2015, Champions Trophy 2017 and Asia Cup 2018.

He is one of the only eight batters in Men's ODI history to score over 5000 runs at a 40-plus average and a 90-plus strike rate; the only other Indian batters in this list being Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Dhawan last featured in an international game in 2022 in an ODI against Bangladesh in Chattogram. His last competitive game came in this year's IPL when he led Punjab Kings in April 2024. (ICC)