ENG v IND 2018: 3 Indian players who might never play Test cricket again

India has lost the five-match Test series to England with them leading 3-1 with one Test to go.

SHIKHAR DHAWAN

Shikhar Dhawan has scored 158 runs in three Tests so far | GettyThe only left-handed top-order batsman for India in the Test series against England, Shikhar Dhawan failed to build on the promises he showed throughout the series. Dhawan, who also played on the limited overs leg for India, has failed to score a single fifty on the tour and was dismissed for a pair in the only practice match against Essex.

This led to him being dropped for the first two Tests in favor of Vijay and Rahul. But with Vijay bagging a pair at Lord’s, Dhawan was called back and since then has scores of 26, 13, 35, 44, 23 and 17. This has shown that despite getting starts, he has been unable to carry it forward.

He has struggled against the moving ball and in an effort to dominate the bowling threw away his wicket at the most inopportune times.  

India needed big scores from Dhawan, but his ineptness at leaving the balls outside off stump had him caught in slips quite often, or he played onto his stumps and was bowled, as he failed to deal with swinging and moving balls from Anderson and Broad.

The Indian team management has been very patient with Dhawan in the longer format, but apart from some scores and century against New Zealand in New Zealand, he has failed to master the foreign conditions of South Africa, England and Australia.

Pace and moving ball have been his bane, while he has plundered attacks on subcontinent pitches with élan.

It is high time, India moves on from Dhawan, as it has always been false promises from him on overseas tours, as evident from his tours to England in 2014 and now in 2018. The stories remain same with Dhawan; he shows potential and gets out when the team needs him to play long innings.

With the likes of Prithvi Shaw already poised for his Test debut and Mayank Agarwal making strong claims for an Indian team all up, the team management has better and younger options to look at for the future.   

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 04 Sep, 2018

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