Veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan’s future in ODIs for India might be discussed by the new selection committee, which is expected to be formed soon. This comes after Ishan Kishan’s brilliant performance in the third ODI against Bangladesh where he made a record 210 and his previous outings in ODIs.
Dhawan has struggled badly in eight out of his last nine ODIs, he has batted with a date approach. This year alone, he has scored 688 runs at an average of 34.4 and a strike rate of 74.21 with a dot ball percentage of 60. His average in powerplay overs 1-10 has been 32.9 and his strike rate is just 66.9 this year.
On the other hand, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan have batted with the intent to score runs off every ball, something that batters from other teams has also shown in limited overs this year.
While no date has been given, the BCCI will hold a review meeting of the team's performance and discuss the roadmap with head coach Dravid and NCA head VVS Laxman on the way ahead.
"A call on Shikhar's future will only be taken after new selection committee is appointed. But head coach Rahul Dravid and skipper Rohit Sharma's views can't be ignored," a senior BCCI told PTI.
Ishan Kishan's double hundred and more importantly, the freshness that he has brought in the approach, will certainly make the team management ponder over the sensitive selection matters. Kishan scored the fastest double hundred in ODIs in just 126 balls and hit 10 sixes and 24 fours and is the first batter to reach his double ton before the last 10 overs began.
There is a school of thought that Dhawan is given at least the last six ODIs in January against Sri Lanka and New Zealand and then take a call before the Australia ODIs at the end of March. After all he has played 167 ODIs and has 6793 runs, behind current India run-getters Rohit (9454) and Virat Kohli (12471).
But then questions like when will Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan get chances and they cannot be kept in the dugout for long.
Kohli, it has been observed in recent times, loves playing the anchor role more often than not with a designated enforcer at the other end doing the front-loading or heavy lifting.
Having someone like Kishan or Gill at the other end might also help Rohit Sharma play his own attacking game at the top.
England has shown that the approach needs to be changed with time and Dhawan consuming so many dot balls while accelerating only in deep middle overs cannot be the template anymore.
One more thing is that apart from the IPL and India, Dhawan doesn’t play much cricket in the domestic circuit as well. While he did play one domestic T20 (Syed Mushtaq Ai Trophy) and two 50-over games (Vijay Hazare), Dhawan hasn't played any first-class games for the last four years.
"There is no substitute of game time. Do you mean to say that Shikhar will start playing ODIs in mid-January without any match practice for next one month. Even Surya is committed to playing Ranji Trophy games for Mumbai as he wants to be in groove. You can understand when he is playing multi-formats. So on what basis will you choose him,” a former selector told PTI.
India will next play ODIs at home in January against Sri Lanka, followed by New Zealand and Australia.
(PTI inputs)
