Shikhar Dhawan is one of India’s finest opening batters of the last decade and more. Fans remember him for his fearless strokeplay, big hundreds in ICC tournaments, and that trademark mustache-twirling celebration. But for all his achievements, Dhawan’s exit from the Indian team wasn’t as graceful as his batting.
Despite delivering solid performances in white-ball cricket for years, Dhawan found himself out of favour in the early 2020s. His Test career had already ended in 2018, but soon he was struggling to hold on even in the shorter formats. In a recent interview, Dhawan opened up honestly about how it all felt.
He revealed that he had hoped to be picked for India’s 2021 T20 World Cup squad. But when the call didn’t come, he didn’t chase anyone or try to plead his case.
“I knew that my name was not going to come. I could sense that thing. It’s not that you are going to be spoon-fed for everything,” Dhawan said in a chat with Hindustan Times. He “never bothered to call anyone” after the T20 World Cup squad came out. “I didn’t ask anyone why my name didn’t come. Even if I had asked, they were going to have their own perspective on it and I am going to tell my own story. It doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t change anything.”
Dhawan was also left out of the 2023 ODI World Cup squad at home—a tough pill since his long-time teammates Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were part of it. Asked if he deserved a better exit, Dhawan spoke candidly about Shubman Gill’s form making things harder for him.
“Now there is one angle of seeing it that way. Another angle is that at the time, Shubman Gill was doing very well in T20s and Tests as well. Now I am not in the picture that much. I only come for ODIs. But the other player is doing so well and he is in front of the coaches more. He is creating his own aura or own environment authentically, organically,” he said.
It wasn’t that Dhawan had stopped scoring altogether. He still made 50s and 70s. But when he saw Ishan Kishan hit that record-breaking double century in an ODI, he knew it was the writing on the wall.
“I was scoring lots of 50s, I didn’t score a 100 but I scored lots of 70s. When Ishan Kishan scored that 200, my instinct told me, alright boy, this can be the end of your career. An inner voice came to me. And that’s what happened. Then I remember my friends came over to you know, give me that emotional support. They thought that I would be very down. But I was chilling, I was enjoying,” Dhawan said.
When asked if any teammates reached out after he was dropped, Dhawan said only Rahul Dravid messaged him.
“No, it doesn’t happen that way. Maybe I spoke to Rahul (Dravid) Bhai. He messaged me. Everyone has their own journey and they are doing work or they are on tours, that’s something very normal. We are used to it from the age of under 14, this is not the first time I am getting dropped or getting in,” he added.
Through all this, Dhawan’s calm acceptance and honesty shine through. He knows how tough the competition is, respects the new generation’s rise, and seems at peace with his own journey. Even if his time in the Indian team ended quietly, Shikhar Dhawan’s contributions—and his smile—won’t be forgotten.