Shikhar Dhawan retirement: 3 major injuries in Team India opener's career
India opener Shikhar Dhawan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket via a video message on the social media platform 'X' on Saturday, August 24. The decision took everyone in the cricket fraternity by surprise.
The Punjab Kings cricketer suffered from a lot of injuries in his career, and this might have been the reason for him hanging up his boots this soon, although age (38) was not exactly on his side either.
Dhawan's India career was cut short by a host of injuries, most of which came in winning causes and in which he invariably scored runs. However, these considerably shortened the length of his time wearing Blue.
In this listicle, we take a look at the three major injuries that Dhawan suffered from in his career.
#1 Thumb injury, 2019
One of the biggest injuries that Dhawan suffered in his career was to his thumb during the 2019 ICC Men's ODI World Cup in England. In fact, he even played with his broken thumb and scored a fine century (117) against Australia at the Oval.
He was hit on his thumb early on in his innings by a delivery by Pat Cummins that reared up from a length but the resilient opener did not complain and kept on going despite feeling immense pain in every shot that he played.
It was only after the game that it was revealed that Dhawan had sustained a hairline fracture, and that it would rule him out of the tournament entirely. This injury did cut down a few valuable months from his career.
#2 Shoulder injury, 2020
Soon after recovering from the thumb injury that ruled him out of the 2019 ICC Men's ODI World Cup, Dhawan returned to play for India in their home series against Australia in early 2020.
He hurt his shoulder while diving to stop an Aaron Finch cover drive in the third ODI in Bengaluru and was taken off the field to get X-rayed. It was confirmed that he would be out for some time after he did not come out to bat in India's innings and was later seen sporting a sling.
Dhawan had also not been able to take the field in the second ODI of the series in Rajkot after he had been struck by a bouncer by Pat Cummins - his old nemesis - on the rib cage. The shoulder injury he sustained while fielding in Bengaluru ruled him out of the five upcoming T20Is in New Zealand.
#3 Shoulder injury, 2024
The latest - and unfortunately, the last - injury that Dhawan sustained in his career was to his shoulder while fielding against Sunrisers Hyderabad during an Indian Premier League game earlier this year.
Although the Punjab Kings' team management had earlier spoken about how the injury was not extremely serious and that they were expecting Dhawan to come back after a brief break of just seven to ten days, it did not turn out this way.
Dhawan, who was captaining the franchise, did not return at all and was ruled out for the entirety of this tournament. As it happened, the game against SRH in Mullanpur on April 9, 2024, turned out to be his last competitive appearance.