India’s veteran opener, Shikhar Dhawan, announced his retirement from international cricket and domestic cricket through a video message on Saturday, 24th August 2024.
He was last seen on the cricket field playing for Punjab Kings during the IPL 2024 and last wore the national jersey during the ODI series against Bangladesh in 2022. Shikhar Dhawan was dropped from Indian side after the critics started questioning his low strike rate. At the same time, the likes of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal were making their presence felt on the big stage.
Dhawan, has been popularly known and nicknamed as ‘Gabbar’. But, do you know why was given that name?
In an interaction with SportsTak, Dhawan stated the reason behind him being called Gabbar.
He recalled that he used to sit at the ground during any big partnership in Ranji Trophy. The fielders used to lose their energy. To energize them, he used to shout ‘Bahut yaarana hai suar ke bacchon’. The fielders used to burst into laughter hearing Dhawan and his team’s coach gave him the name ‘Gabbar’. From then onwards, he was known as ‘Gabbar’.
“I was playing in the Ranji Trophy and was sitting at silly point. When the other team has a big partnership then the players tend to get down. When I was sitting, I used to shout, ‘Bahut yaarana hai suar ke bacchon’ and everyone used to burst out laughing. Our coach (Vijay) kept my name Gabbar from there only. From there, the name became so famous that cricket fans all over the world now call me gabbar only,” he said.
Shikhar Dhawan’s numbers in ODI cricket speak for itself
Although Dhawan has played in all three formats for India, his most consistent performances have come in ODI cricket. He forged a sensational partnership with Rohit Sharma as openers and dominated ODI cricket from 2013-2019.
The top three comprising of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli scored almost 70 percent of India’s runs in ODI cricket during that period.
Dhawan always stood up during ICC tournaments. He was the leading run scorer in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 and played an integral part in India’s win. He was also India’s leading run scorer in ODI World Cup 2015 and ICC Champions Trophy in 2017. Dhawan also a scored a century in the two matches that he played in ODI World Cup 2019 and that came against Australia, before getting sidelined from the tournament due to injury.
