New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS): Shikhar Dhawan, one of the best opening batsmen of the past decade, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket via a video posted on social media in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A career which spanned over a decade that saw him register 24 hundreds (17 in ODIs and seven in Tests) across 269 international matches began at the Sonnet Club located in Bhatti Kalan, Delhi.

Following the news of his retirement, the cricket coach at Sonnet Club, Devendra Sharma spoke exclusively to IANS to send his wishes for the 38-year-old and asked Dhawan to consider taking up a commentary role in the future.

“Shikhar Dhawan has been a part of Sonnett Club ever since he was a kid, he played a lot of cricket for the club in Delhi and went on to represent both the state and our nation. On behalf of Sonnett Club, we wish him the best for the future and we hope he stays connected to the sport through a commentator role and wish him nothing but success in his future endeavors,” Devendra Sharma told IANS.

The start of ‘Gabbar's’ glorious career began with training at Sonnet Club under renowned coach Tarak Sinha at the age of 12. After making a name for himself in first-class cricket, he went on to don the national team’s colors for 13 years, in which he played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs, and 68 T20Is scoring 2315, 6793 and 1579 runs respectively in the three formats.

Alongside his impeccable international career, Dhawan went on to represent Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Punjab in the Indian Premier League where he played 222 games whilst scoring 6769 runs which included two centuries and 51 half-centuries.

Dhawan's final appearance for India was in an ODI against Bangladesh in Chattogram in December 2022 while his last T20I was in Sri Lanka in July 2021. He hadn't played a Test for India since 2018.