The Indian opening batsman, Shikhar Dhawan has been going through some hard luck. After missing out the Windies series, Dhawan had been trying to seal his place in the national side. He had played some good knocks against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Australia series before he had to stay away from batting in the third ODI against Australia.
Last week, Dhawan injured his left shoulder after making a dive to stop an Aaron Finch’s shot in the third ODI between India and Australia in Bengaluru. This meant that India toured New Zealand without having Dhawan in the team.
Nevertheless, Dhawan has been replaced by Sanju Samson for the five-match T20I series while Prithvi Shaw was named for the three ODIs. While India has already kicked-off their tour with a victorious T20I win, now it seems like Dhawan is likely to even miss the beginning of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Indian opener returned to his home team, Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 2019 IPL where he had aggregated 521 runs as DC finished third in the tournament. Dhawan returned in the team after 11 long years.
However, the possibility of him having another spectacular year seems difficult as it seems impossible for him to be back in the initial stages of the IPL fixtures.
In the meantime, here are the three players who can take place of Shikhar Dhawan, who’s subjected to a fitness, for the Capitals in the IPL 2020.
Three Players who can replace Shikhar Dhawan for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2020:
Manoj Tiwary:
Manoj Tiwary has been a vital cog for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the successful IPL 2012 campaign for the franchise. The Indian cricketer is among the top premier league cricketers ever since the inaugural IPL 2008. After kick-starting his IPL journey with the Delhi, Tiwary returned to the team in 2014-15.
However, the cricketer never got many chances to showcase his talent as long as he was with Delhi. The Bengal cricketer, however, made the most of his time during his stay with his home team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the four seasons.
Ahead of the 2010 IPL, Tiwary was roped in by KKR in exchange for Moises Henriques. The aggressive right-hander had an amazing season with KKR in 2010 when he scored two half-centuries. In the 54 games he played for KKR, Tiwary had amassed 1002 runs.
However, his best game came in the 2012 IPL while he hit the winning runs on the bowling of Dwayne Bravo to help KKR win their maiden title.
Ahead of the IPL 2018, Tiwary was roped in by the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for a whopping amount of INR 1 Crore. But having bought for such a massive price, the batsman played only in five matches where he collected a total of 47 runs. Ever since the 11th edition of the cash-rich game, Tiwary had no luck of being taken in by any franchise whatsoever.
Nevertheless, with Dhawan possibly being out of the game for Delhi in the initial stages of the upcoming league, it might be a possibility that Tiwary would be asked to open for the Capitals.