Veteran India opener Shikhar Dhawan has come under the scanner after his failures in the recently held ODI series in Bangladesh.
The southpaw registered three single-digit scores as Bangladesh defeated India 2-1 in the three-match ODI series. In his last 10 ODIs, Dhawan has returned with scores of 3, 8, 7, 28, 3, 72, 8, 13, 4 and 40.
In the 50-over format this year, the left-hander has amassed 688 runs in 22 innings at an average of 34.40 and a strike rate of 74.21, including six half-centuries.
With backup openers like Shubman Gill and Ishan doing well lately, Dhawan’s place in the side is being questioned.
Amid the scrutiny, former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer has backed Dhawan and urged the Indian team management needs to show some faith in the senior opener.
“I think they should still back him because he has got that record and then I feel part of that reason is that he doesn’t play international cricket as consistently as he used to do it. There are not many One-days in the recent past and he found himself out of touch and not playing quality cricket,” Jaffer said during a discussion on ESPNcricinfo.
“And that is part of the reason I feel. If you look back, how Yuvraj Singh probably how India backed him, before the 2011 World Cup he had a pretty ordinary time or even Virat Kohli for that matter. Even before this World Cup, there were voices going around ‘what to do with Virat Kohli’ and then he came with a bang,” he added.
According to Jaffer, Shikhar Dhawan is a quality player, who has the ability to hit centuries on a regular basis.
“I think we need to back Shikhar Dhawan as well because once he gets going, he’s that kind of player who can get hundreds on the regular basis.
“Even though Ishan Kishan is a left-handed batter as well but Shikhar Dhawan is a quality player, so you need to back that experience.”
Jaffer also pointed out that since Dhawan is a single-format player, he doesn’t get a lot of match practice and that’s why it gets difficult for him to come in and score runs.
“You can’t buy experience. I can understand because he doesn’t play too much international cricket at the moment, he is not part of the T20 team and he’s out of Test contention. So there’s not much cricket for him and to come in and start scoring runs in international cricket is sometimes very hard. It’s 50-over World Cup next. So India is going to play a lot of one-day cricket so I am sure he’ll get back to his best soon.”
