India captain Virat Kohli lavished praise on Shikhar Dhawan for his valuable contribution with the bat to the hosts’ 66-run victory over England in the opening game of the ongoing three-match ODI series at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium in Pune on Tuesday (March 23).
The opener was left out of India’s playing XI in the recent five-match T20I series after playing only the first game with the likes of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav getting chances, but in the first ODI, Dhawan was given the chance and he made the most of the opportunity by delivering a Player of the Match performance against England.
The left-hander smashed 98 off 106 as well as added 64 runs for the first wicket before stitching another 105-run stand with Kohli to help India post 317/5 on the board against England in the first ODI. In the match, Kohli (56), KL Rahul (62*), and Krunal Pandya (58*) all also contributed well with the bat.
Defending the total, the debutant speedster Prasidh Krishna scalped four wickets while Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with three and two wickets respectively with Krunal Pandya dismissing Sam Curran to bundle out England for 251 runs to win the game for India by 66 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the ongoing three-match ODI series at home.
Kohli said on Dhawan in the post-match presentation: “A special mention to Shikhar. His body language was amazing when he wasn’t playing. He was motivating players, running with extra stuff like water. Today he deservedly got the result he achieved.
Made a very important contribution. You saw it was tricky first up and the openers had to start off that way. In that context, his innings were very important since he batted the tough overs. His contribution was better than what the scorecard was.”
Hailing the bowlers for their efforts, the captain said: “One of our sweetest victories in recent past. We haven’t won many good games in ODIs. A comeback from all our bowlers, getting nine wickets so quickly is outstanding. Going for few runs early on (Prasidh) and coming back was amazing. Krunal as well. Shardul, Bhuvi was amazing.”
He added, “I am a really proud man right now. The team showed great character and intensity. As I’ve mentioned in the past as well, we promote players who have intent and back their skills. Special mention to Shikhar’s innings as well. Didn’t get much after the first T20I. KL as well, back among the runs.
So we want to back people who will do a selfless job. It’s a healthy competition between everyone for every slot. We have 2-3 players available for every slot. The management has done these discussions with senior players as well. We are on the right path.”
Kohli also lauded Rahul and Krunal for their late impressive batting that helped India to cross the 300-run mark in the first ODI against England in Pune on Tuesday.
He signed off, “When I was batting, I told Shikhar that between 31-40 I’d look to take the bowlers on. We lost a few wickets and there was a brief pushback but Krunal and KL then took it away.
If I had stayed with Shikhar around that 40 over the period we could’ve got 350. England hit some amazing shots, and scores will be high scoring moving forward, and we’ll look to get bigger scores moving forward.”
(With CRICKETNEXT Inputs)
