Shikhar Dhawan played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is for India between 2013 and 2022.
Dhawan, on Wednesday, revealed that he didn't have the "inspiration" left to take the domestic cricket route for a place in the national side and that was the reason why he chose to retire.
Dhawan became India's 25th ODI captain in an ODI against Sri Lanka in June 2021, taking over for Rohit Sharma, and went on to lead the team in 12 matches, winning seven and losing three.
However, before the ODI World Cup last year, Dhawan had to make way for a younger batter, Shubman Gill. His final international appearance for India came in December 2022.
"I didn't want to play domestic cricket, which I started playing at the age of 18 or 19 and I didn't have that inspiration from inside to play that (form of) cricket. If I look back, the last two years of my cricketing career, I wasn't playing much of international cricket and I was playing IPL to IPL, so I wasn't playing much of cricket (overall),” Dhawan told PTI.
Dhawan also left the IPL as a bonafide legend of the league, with 6769 runs in 222 matches including two hundreds and 51 half-centuries. His 768 fours in the tournament are the highest by any batter and he also holds the distinction of being the first to hit consecutive hundreds in the event.
Dhawan, who captained the Punjab Kings in a few games last year, admitted that practicing for the IPL for two or three months would not be enough to qualify for a national call-up.
"I thought that, 'alright, I've played enough, and I need to give it a break because I'm not playing that much cricket, so you lose the touch as well. I thought that continuing IPL and just coming up with two, three months of hard work won't be enough for me to go and play," he said.
Dhawan reiterated that he was content with the way his journey ended.
"So that was the reason for me to just call it off, and yeah, I was very happy and satisfied and content with whatever I achieved in my career, and very, very grateful for everything. Of course, we would have loved to win the World Cup,” Dhawan added.
Dhawan is ninth in the overall list of best career partnership runs for any wicket with India skipper Rohit Sharma, having added 5,193 runs at 45.15 in 117 matches, including 18 centuries and 15 half-centuries stands.
Dhawan expressed his delight that Rohit's career has reached new heights, with India winning the T20 World Cup under his guidance.
"He's a great captain, and so happy that he led the team and won the World Cup for our nation. We were waiting for that World Cup for a long time. We were very close in (winning) the ODI World Cup as well, and now we achieved that goal in T20Is.
He's a very experienced captain, and I'm sure all the boys love him as a leader and he has done a phenomenal job for the Indian team," he added.
(PTI inputs)