Shikhar Dhawan, a former opener for India, recently talked about the realization that his time as an international player was coming to an end. Since he was just playing ODIs at the moment, Dhawan thought his career would be over when fellow opener Ishan Kishan hammered a bouncy double century.

At the final game of the series, Kishan and Dhawan opened for India against Bangladesh at Chattogram without captain Rohit Sharma. Kishan blasted his way to 210 off 131 balls with 24 fours and 10 sixes, while Dhawan was dismissed for three during the match. That would turn out to be Dhawan's international and List A outing.

“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 it,” Dhawan told Hindustan Times, ahead of the launch of his autobiography titled ‘The One.’

Dhawan was then forced out of ODI contention as focus shifted to Shubman Gill as India prepared for the ICC World Cup 2023.

The 39-year-old claimed that despite his excellent ODI and ICC tournament record, he found it challenging to keep up with the game because of Gill's growing prominence across forms.

“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,” Dhawan said.

Dhawan's exclusion from India's 2021 T20 World Cup roster was another blow to his T20I career. Later, Dhawan would captain a backup India team in Sri Lanka in 2021, which proved to be his final T20I series.

“I knew that my name was not going to come (2021 T20 World Cup squad). I could sense that thing. It’s not that you are going to be spoon-fed for everything. 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 stated.

Shikhar Dhawan retired from all cricket last year. He made 2315 runs in 34 Tests with 7 centuries, 6793 runs in 167 ODIs with 17 centuries, and 1759 runs in 68 T20Is with 11 half-centuries.