I Am Not That Worried About Shikhar Dhawan – Ashish Nehra
Mar 4, 2019 at 3:41 PM
Indian opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan is currently struggling with the bat. However, the former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra doesn’t feel worried about Shikhar Dhawan’s form.
The Indian national cricket team is in the final preparation for the upcoming World Cup. After the ongoing home ODI series against Australia, India’s next international cricket assignment will be the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. So, the ongoing ODI series is the final opportunity for the Indian cricketers to block their spot for the upcoming World Cup.
Indian opening Shikhar Dhawan is currently struggling to perform consistently. The left-handed batsman was in the great form in the last calendar year (2018). In 2018, he scored 897 runs in 19 ODI innings with an average of 49.83.
Moreover, he won the Player of the Tournament award in the 2018 Asia Cup that India won. He finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer after scoring 342 runs with an average of 68.40.
However, Shikhar Dhawan is struggling now to maintain those brilliant performances this year. Playing nine ODIs in this year, he has scored 243 runs with an average of 30.37. He scored two consecutive half-centuries during the recent New Zealand tour, but he has mostly failed shine in this year. In the last ODI against Australia at Hyderabad, Shikhar Dhawan scored a golden duck.
Moreover, KL Rahul’s returning to the form is putting extra pressure on Shikhar Dhawan. After some struggling months in international cricket, finally, KL Rahul has returned to the form with his bat. In the recently concluded T20I home series against Australia, KL Rahul played two back-to-back good innings 50 and 47 runs.
Shikhar Dhawan is one good innings away from coming back to form – Ashish Nehra
However, Ashish Nehra is not feeling any danger on Shikhar Dhawan’s position in the national team. The former Indian left-arm pacer believes that if KL Rahul didn’t show his excellent performances in the recent T20I matches, this question would be irrelevant.
Moreover, Ashish Nehra feels that Shikhar Dhawan is one good innings away to return to the form.
Ashish Nehra told CricketNext, “Rahul there or not there, any player who is playing will look to score runs. It is not that Dhawan has played 10-15 innings without doing anything. Even for Rahul, he has scored just those two – 50 and 47 in the T20I format (vs Australia). If he wouldn’t have done that, the question would have been irrelevant. Yes, Dhawan needs to score runs but he didn’t play much cricket. I feel he is one good innings away from coming back to form. I am not that worried about Dhawan.”
Before the World Cup, Shikhar Dhawan will get four more home ODI matches (against Australia) and the entire IPL 2019 season to return to the form.