Sri Lankan batting great, Mahela Jayawardene lauded Indian batsman Shikhar Dhawan, saying that the left-hander has been performing well while raising additional responsibility with the confidence in the absence of the senior teammates in the ongoing Nidahas Trophy 2018 in Sri Lanka. Earlier, in the third match of the series Bangladesh stunned Sri Lanka by chasing 215, the highest ever at Colombo to bring the series right back in the balance. All 3 teams now have won one each and lost one going ahead in the tournament.
Dhawan, who has been phenomenal in the Tri-series so far, smashing 90 off 49 balls against Sri Lanka, though his stunning knock went in vain as the hosts won the T20 International Tri-series opener, while hammered 55 runs against Bangladesh to help India to win the match by 6-wickets in Colombo.
On Monday (12 March), Rohit Sharma –led Indian Cricket Team will lock horns against the Lankan side in their third match of the Nidahas Trophy with the aim to beat the hosts.
Jayawardene wrote in his column for TOI, “Missing several senior players, Shikhar Dhawan has thus far taken on the additional responsibilities with confidence scoring 90 and 55. In T20 cricket, it’s always helpful when your openers are scoring runs and Dhawan has been pivotal.”
However, India lost their Tri-series opener to Sri Lanka despite posting a good total, but Jayawardene believes that India would not be pondering much into their opening defeat, and the ‘Men in Blue will go into their Monday’s encounter with all to play for in this Nidahas Trophy’.
He further added on the same, “India will go into their third game, against Sri Lanka on Monday, with all to play for in this Nidahas Trophy. Of course, they will be disappointed to have lost to the hosts in their first game, but they recovered well against Bangladesh with a very efficient performance. I don’t think India will read too much into their opening defeat to Sri Lanka. They scored a respectable 175 for five, which is an excellent score at the Premadasa Stadium, and failed to perhaps bowl as well as they would have liked, but this is a new team with lots of inexperience.”
Jayawardene signed off by saying, “Even then, though they may have rested some senior players, sensibly so in my opinion, India have some very talented young players eager to make their mark and it will fascinate me to see who puts their hand up.”
