Former Indian seamer Ashish Nehra believes opener Shikhar Dhawan is one good knock away from finding form. Dhawan hasn’t been at his best in the recent past and he would like to pull up the socks. In fact, Dhawan has scored only two fifties in the last 15 One Day Internationals. In the first match of the series against Australia, the southpaw opener was dismissed for a golden duck.
Meanwhile, we all are familiar with Dhawan’s record in the ICC events. He has immaculate annals in the major events and India will want Dhawan to be back in form before the 2019 World Cup. Meanwhile, Ashish Nehra said he is not worried about Dhawan’s lean patch.
Dhawan will like to get back into form.
On the other hand, KL Rahul was able to get back into form, which is a positive for the side. Rahul had scored 50 and 47 in the T20I series against Australia.
“Rahul there or not there, any player who is playing will look to score runs. It is not that Dhawan has played 10-15 innings without doing anything. Even for Rahul, he has scored just those two – 50 and 47 in the T20I format (vs Australia). If he wouldn’t have done that, the question would have been irrelevant. Yes, Dhawan needs to score runs but he didn’t play much cricket. I feel he is one good innings away from coming back to form. I am not that worried about Dhawan,” Nehra told CricketNext.
Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan is a big player who would like to hit the ground running in the ODI showpiece. Dhawan has all the experience under his belt and he is a quality player.
The left-handed batsman has scored 5178 runs in 124 One Day Internationals at an average of 44.64. Dhawan would aim to get back into form in the remaining four matches in the ongoing series against Australia.
India won the first ODI by six wickets after MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav scored fine knocks. The second ODI between Australia and India will take place at Nagpur on 5th March.
