I knew I had fracture but kept on batting in 2019 World Cup: Shikhar Dhawan

India opener Shikhar Dhawan was in sublime form with the bat in the 2019 World Cup before a finger injury ruled him out of the premier ODI tournament after just two games. The Delhi lad had just blasted a brilliant 117 against Australia in the second game of the tournament but also injured his thumb over the course of that century.

Shikhar Dhawan has a stellar record in ICC tournaments

Shikhar Dhawan’s record in ICC tournaments has been phenomenal and that’s why the inopportune thumb injury hurts him even more. A young and inexperienced Rishabh Pant had to be called to replace Shikhar Dhawan but the Indian batting was never the same after the experienced opener’s departure.

Shikhar Dhawan said that he got his career's maximum ‘limelight’ after his return to India as fans kept on saying that things would have been different if he was in the team till the end of the tournament.

“I was, being very honest, sad. When I was batting, I knew I got fractured, I took pain killers... my pain threshold is high... and kept on batting,” Shikar Dhawan told India Today in an interview.

“We won the match. In my whole career, I never got that much of limelight. After the injury, I came back... people were saying 'because of you, you were not there, you were not there'. I saw a lot of positive,” the 34-year-old opener said.

The Delhi batsman informed that he moved on quickly after being sad for a while. Shikhar Dhawan believes that his quality of acceptance came to his rescue at that crucial juncture of his career.

"For me, I knew I gave my best and in that particular moment, I gave my best in a difficult situation. It didn't affect me. I was sad for maybe 5-10 minutes and then I got over with it. That was a reality. You have to change your mindset from expectation to acceptance. Once you have strong acceptance in life, you will ride it very smoothly,” Shikhar Dhawan, who has 5688 runs in 136 ODIs at an average of 45.14, said.

The left-hander also opened up on how he spent the time at home, once injury had abruptly cut short his World Cup sojourn.

“I was totally fine. I was happy, went back and had a great time with my family. I was enjoying it and that attitude helped me as well. I came back to the team and started scoring. I was positive, there was no negative thought 'oh this could be my last World Cup'. I don't know but that positivity kept me going,” Shikhar Dhawan added.

India had cruised into the semifinals of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup but bowed out after a dismal performance against New Zealand in the penultimate stage.