Rohit Sharma and David Warner, two of the best openers of the current era got together for a session of Instagram Live. While discussing many different things, they got to the topic of one person, who is common between the two cricketers.
That person is Shikhar Dhawan, given that he opens with Rohit Sharma in limited-overs for India and had done the same with David Warner for SRH in the IPL for a long time. Warner asked Rohit about his experience of opening with Dhawan.
Rohit said, "He is an idiot, He does not like to face the first ball. He likes to play the spinner but does not like to take on the spinners. I remember way back in 2013 when I started opening for India in limited-overs. It was my first game as an opener in Champions Trophy. So I told him to take the strike as I had not faced the bowlers with the new ball. And he was like, no Rohit, you have been playing for a while this is my first tour. And I said I mean the guy who is a regular opener does not want to take the strike.”
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"Then I took the strike and Morne Morkel was bowling and I did not see the first three balls because I was not expecting the bounce. That was my first experience with Shikhar, but now I am comfortable with him," Rohit added.
Since then, Rohit and Dhawan have added 4807 runs in 107 ODIs at an average of 45.30 and have 16 century partnerships to their name. They also have added 1743 runs in 52 T20I innings with 4 century partnerships and an average of 33.51, which is the most by any pair of openers in the format.
"Sometimes he is very annoying as well. In the middle, I am setting up the game and 5 seconds he is like what did you say. Imagine, you are under tremendous pressure and then this guy says all these things. It kinds of makes you frustrated," Rohit said.
However, David Warner and Rohit Sharma agreed on one peculiar trait of Shikhar Dhawan which is his running between the wickets. Rohit pointed out, "He has that weird thing when he defends the ball and he goes back for a non-striker it is confusing whether to run or not. So I have decided, I am not going to run unless I see the ball going into the gap. I have missed many runs doing that but I do not regret that."
David Warner also agreed with Rohit on that and said, "I am glad that you said that because when I was batting with him at SRH, I was hoping someone says the same thing. It is very hard to judge."
