Left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan embarked on the tour of Australia after a stellar show in the 2020 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL).

Playing for Delhi Capitals (DC), Dhawan aggregated 618 runs from 17 innings at a strike-rate of 144.73 as his team made it to the finals for the first time in the tournament’s history.

However, the southpaw has failed to live up to the expectations in the ongoing tour Down Under. While Dhawan started the tour with a brilliant knock of 74 in the first ODI, he followed it up with the scores of 30, 16 and 1 in the last two ODIs and first T20I respectively.

Meanwhile, former India opener Virender Sehwag has said that there is no need to read too much into Dhawan’s low scores as Australia isn’t the easiest of places to score runs.

“At times, it is difficult for an opener to score runs at will in these conditions against such a good bowling attack. Because I have gone through that stage, it is not easy to score runs in Australia against the new ball. So, I feel a little more time should be given to Shikhar Dhawan and he should also take his time while playing,” Sehwag said on the Sony Sports Network.

“When KL Rahul is batting with him, the form he is in, he is scoring runs at a fast pace. So, if Dhawan can just rotate the strike and once the spinners come later on, he can cash in and build a good partnership,” he added.

Virat Kohli is known for being an impulsive captain as he frequently chop and change India’s Playing XI but Sehwag is confident that Dhawan will not be axed.

“I don’t think so. Because the sort of experienced player he is, I feel Shikhar Dhawan will and should get more chances. Although in one of the ODIs I think he had scored 25-30 runs but he could not convert that to a big score,” Sehwag remarked.

“But the form he was in the IPL, with two centuries, I don’t think he should be left out for the next two T20Is because he has the experience and when he fires, he will play good cricket and contribute for the team,” he explained.