IPL 2022: "He Is An IPL Legend" - Irfan Pathan Lauds Shikhar Dhawan's Match-Winning Knock In PBKS-GT Clash

Irfan Pathan has named Shikhar Dhawan an IPL legend for his reliable batting displays throughout the years in the esteemed league.

Dhawan scored an unbeaten 62 off 53 balls in Tuesday (May 3) night’s IPL 2022 experience between the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Gujarat Titans (GT). His impeccably paced innings, alongside Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone’s combative knock, assisted PBKS with pursuing down the 144-run target with four overs in excess.

Shikhar Dhawan Is An IPL Legend: Irfan Pathan

“He (Dhawan) is an IPL legend, he is that type of a batter. The 15th season is going on and there have been only two seasons where he has not scored 300 runs. He has scored at least 300 runs in every other season, he brings that sort of performance.”

Talking about Dhawan’s thump against the Titans, the former India all-rounder called attention to that the veteran southpaw guaranteed that the Punjab Kings didn’t lose a whirlwind of wickets toward the beginning of their innings. Pathan explained:

“He was required to show his experience today and he did that. The way he built his innings at the start when the ball was moving around. It was extremely necessary for the Punjab Kings not to lose too many wickets at the start.”

Shikhar Dhawan Knows When To Accelerate: Irfan Pathan

Dhawan is the second-highest run-scorer in IPL history. His 6153 runs are behind just the 6469 runs amassed by Virat Kohli, having played 15 matches less than his kindred Delhiite.

Irfan Pathan brought up that Dhawan was able to play the cat-and-mouse game against the new ball prior to speeding up after the ball quit dashing around. He elaborated:

“He was leaving the new ball. When Mohammed Shami and Ferguson were bowling, he was not trying to repeatedly put bat to ball. But once he got set, the ball stopped moving, he put his full experience and played an extremely important knock.”

Whole PBKS Batting Revolves Around Shikhar Dhawan: Irfan Pathan

The former Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) player closed by featuring the significance of Dhawan being among the runs for the franchise. Pathan said:

“When Shikhar Dhawan scores runs for Punjab Kings, the other batters score runs around him and can play fearlessly. It was a praiseworthy knock.”

Shikhar Dhawan is supposed to play the sheet anchor’s job for the Punjab Kings, with a lot of hazardous hitters in their arrangement. He had his influence flawlessly in the previous evening’s game as Rajapaksa and Livingstone assumed the assailant’s part at the opposite end.

Also Read: IPL 2022: Pragyan Ojha Names Shikhar Dhawan And David Warner As The Most Consistent Players In IPL