Even though dealing with life as a one-format India specialist, Shikhar Dhawan remains quite upbeat about his future at the international level. The experienced left-hander says he continues to work hard over his game and isn’t feeling anxious or unsettled by the rising competition for spots.
Dhawan, 36, turned out in his most recent Test for India in August 2018 and in a T20I last July for a second-string Indian side on the tour of Sri Lanka. The southpaw remains an IPL regular but has been pigeonholed as an ODI specialist in the Indian set-up.
At a time when the number of 50-over matches have been rare, he has had to overcome infrequent game time and stiff challenge for his place from the younger Indian batters waiting for their opportunities.
Doubts have been raised from time to time on Dhawan’s viability to the side when there is a proliferation of more vibrant, attacking batters around and whether he would make the cut for the 2023 World Cup in India. But the veteran isn’t paying heed to those opinions and says he isn’t going anywhere at least for the next three years.
“We as cricketers have to remain on our toes and fit to be relevant in the race to represent India. I am playing for the next three years at least. I have been batting quite well for the past few years, I am hopeful and positive that the way I am performing, there are many milestones to achieve.”
Dhawan was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Since the end of the 2019 World Cup in the UK, Dhawan has made 804 runs in 17 innings in the ODIs while averaging 50.25 with a strike-rate of 89.33 to keep his younger competitors at bay. Yet, the narrative against the ageing stalwart has been negative, not helped by some of the untimely injuries he has had.
In between this phase, Dhawan has also had to deal with the disappointment of being axed from the T20I set-up despite showing improved range and performances in the IPL. The 36-year-old collected a whopping 1,205 runs from his 33 innings in IPL 2020 and 2021 for Delhi Capitals at an average of 41.55 and strike-rate of 134.18 on neutral surfaces.
Yet, he was dropped after just one T20I against England in March from the first-choice Indian side in the build up to the T20 World Cup in UAE and was taken to Sri Lanka as a stand-in skipper only to fill an experience void.
