March 26, 2015. Sydney Cricket Ground SCG is more blue than gold. Mitchell Johnson fires in a bouncer targeting Virat Kohli’s grille. Kohli attempts a pull, miscues and gets a top edge. The ball lobs to Brad Haddin’s gloves. Australia are sniffing another World Cup final.
Kohli is criticised for crackling under pressure. Anushka Sharma is pilloried for her presence by the social media trolls. Arnab Goswami gets #ShameInSydney to trend. Perhaps Kohli paid the price of a superstar but the turning point came 16 balls earlier…
Shikhar Dhawan was in a sublime touch, milking the Australian bowlers around. He had it all under control till brawns took over. There was Glenn Maxwell patrolling at the deep extra cover and he thought he could clear him. He stepped out and drove over the in-field on Maxwell. Dhawan surrendered for a 41-ball 45.
That was the turning point for India’s campaign and form is what I am talking about even though this notion is backed by history.
A year and half prior, India had successfully chased down 350-plus scores against Australia twice. Dhawan laid the platform with 95 and a hundred respectively.
When Dhawan fell for 116 at Canberra in 2015-16, India needed 72 from 75 balls with 9 wickets in hand. India decided to lose from there and go down 0-4.
January 23, 2016. Ten months post the World Cup semi-final SCG witnessed a replay. The target was 331. India were 20 after 5 overs. The required rate was touching 7.
A boundary was manufactured from nowhere with Scott Boland left wondering. After all, he had not provided Dhawan the width.
Good players, especially in shorter formats, are capable of manufacturing boundaries. Dhawan belongs to the school of Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir, southpaws exceptionally strong on off with the ability to create room out of nowhere.
Dhawan in this case read the length early, made room to flay it past point. The following over John Hastings was clipped over midwicket for a six and then an uppish drive over the cover.
As delightful Dhawan can be, he can be equally frustrating, as he does not possess the Kohli-like temperament. Time and again he will slash at a wayward delivery or find the poorest of balls to get out. But not everyone can be a Kohli. And this knock from Dhawan was more about the delight part.
The 56-ball 78 set up the platform before Rohit Sharma’s 99 and Manish Pandey’s hundred sealed it for India.
1-4 sounds better than 0-5. Kohli scored 8 here. Few noticed this, but had Dhawan fired, SCG in 2015 could have been conquered.
Dhawan finished the ODI series vs Australia in 2016 with 287 runs at 57.40, with a strike rate of over 100.
India avenged by taking the T20I series 3-0. In the final game, again at Sydney, Dhawan helped India get off to a flyer. He ended the third over with 4, 6 and 4, and the bowler was the express Shaun Tait. He displayed a wide range of his strengths in those three balls — a glorious drive over mid-off, whipped off pads for six and a cut over point. India were 42 after 3 overs. They chased down 198.
The Sydney ODI was almost a year back. It was Dhawan’s last in this format.
His last fifty-plus score in competitive cricket before today was almost six months back, in West Indies. He scored 84 in the first Test at North Sound.
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The axe fell on Dhawan. Trent Boult broke his finger. Dhawan came back. Unfortunately, First-Class cricket has been unkind to him ever since. His 2016-17 tally reads 201 runs at 25.13 from 5 matches. And yet, he made a return to the ODI squad.
A new dawn sets upon the Indian team with Kohli now taking over the limited-overs captaincy mantle from MS Dhoni but Dhawan’s role will remain unchanged.
But again. Why Dhawan in the first place? If form was the criteria…
The numbers
Under-19 numbers can be deceptive at times. They do not necessarily indicate what lies ahead. As late as in the early- and mid-2000s, 300 used to be a winning total, and batsmen with strike rates in the 70s were considered aggressive; 80 was considered outstanding.
In the Under-19 World Cup 2004, India’s campaign lasted till the semi-final, but Dhawan won the Player of the Tournament with 505 runs at 84.16. There were 4 fifty-plus scores from 7 games, 3 of which were hundreds.
The list was followed by a certain Englishman named Alastair Cook, with 383 runs. Cook and Dhawan played similar roles for their sides, both being left-handed openers. Dhawan’s strike rate was 93.5 while Cook’s was 74.8.
There were 10 batsmen who scored 250 or more runs in the tournament. Only two (Xavier Marshall of West Indies and Brad Wilson of New Zealand) had their strike rates in 80s. The rest were mostly in the 70s; some even languished in the 60s. Dhawan sat alone in the 90s.
This was the start of things to come.
Dhawan won his First-Class cap for Delhi later that year. Opening with Aakash Chopra, Dhawan, then 19, scored a brisk 66 against Andhra. It was followed by 87 vs Railways, 88 vs Madhya Pradesh and his maiden ton in the next, against Karnataka. Gambhir’s return saw him drop to No. 3 at times.
A promising career had just started and it took close to nine years for him to make it to the Test side.
Dhawan was piling up runs for Delhi as his state seniors were doing the same for India. He had to wait.
| Format | M | R | HS | Ave | SR | 100s | 50s |
| Tests | 23 | 1,464 | 187 | 38.52 | 60.0 | 4 | 3 |
| ODIs | 74 | 3,078 | 137 | 43.97 | 90.3 | 9 | 17 |
| T20Is | 22 | 416 | 60 | 20.80 | 113.4 | 0 | 2 |
To be brutally honest, ODIs are the format where he is most comfortable in. His First-Class average of almost 44 and T20 average of over 30 (strike-rate of 119.4) are at passable at best. In comparison, Dhawan’s List A runs have come at almost 46.
The 50-over format is Dhawan’s territory.
| Most runs as opening pair for India in ODIs | |||||||
| Partners | Span | I | R | Highest | Ave | 100s | 50s |
| S Ganguly, S Tendulkar | 1996-07 | 136 | 6,609 | 258 | 49.32 | 21 | 23 |
| V Sehwag, S Tendulkar | 2002-12 | 93 | 3,919 | 182 | 42.13 | 12 | 18 |
| S Dhawan, Rohit Sharma | 2013-16 | 54 | 2,450 | 178 | 46.22 | 8 | 8 |
…For reasons beyond numbers
Dhawan has shades of illustrious predecessors.
Ganguly’s offside play was smooth and princely, the long heavy bat coming down straight. There was glamour and elegance in his drives and cuts.
Add malleable wrists to them and you have Dhawan.
Like Dada, Dhawan has a knack of building innings in the 50-over format, remaining completely in control of the proceedings and upping the ante at will.
Gambhir is gritty. A fighter. More than chic, it is about the business. Bang him short, and he will dispatch you over square-leg. He seldom hesitates to employ those fearless inside-outs.
Dhawan does the same and with more panache. He may take a few blows and look ugly against the short-pitched stuff, but when the whips and pulls come off, they are a treat for sore eyes.
Sehwag was a riddle. Unsolved. Flash over the leg-side. Flash over the gully with a cover, point and gully in place. Sehwag cannot be measured or analysed.
One cannot slip into Sehwag’s shoes, but Dhawan has come close. When quick starts are the need of the day, Dhawan can be counted on to sacrifice his Ganguly-Gambhir attributes and go ballistic, the Sehwag-way, helping his partner with time.
Dhawan’s highest List A score is 248.
***
Again, why him?
Form does not matter. Challenges do.
There are batsmen who rely on touch. They will score in domestic cricket, pick them and place them at international and they will continue to do the same.
For some it is about the challenges. When Ganguly made his comeback in 2006 and Sehwag did the same in 2008, their forms were not backed by domestic scores. For some, the arenas matter more.
Dhawan thrives under challenges. He does not need to be in sublime touch to succeed. He will score runs for you in Asia Cup final, World Cups and Champions Trophy. His numbers in ICC ODI tournaments speaks for him:
| M | R | HS | Ave | SR | 100s | 50s |
| 13 | 775 | 137 | 64.58 | 96.0 | 4 | 2 |
***
Dhawan has had a torrid season so far with no First-Class fifty. And yet he featured in the ODI squad, a year later. Here he is at Brabourne Stadium, warming up for the series.
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It is MS Dhoni’s last game as a captain representing India. Dhawan opens for India A. England bowlers start well. His partner Mandeep Singh struggles. In the third over, he lunges forward and caresses Chris Woakes through cover.
He weathers the early storm. Strokes to an 84-ball 63 — his highest score this season and against one of the better attacks he has played.
The 50-over format is Dhawan’s territory.
If India defend the Champions Trophy title in June, it will not matter whether Dhoni or Kohli is at helm, for Dhawan will hold the key for the continuation of India’s reign.
He can look awkwardly tentative. There will be the criticisms at galore. There also will be the match-defining knocks.
And when they come off, they complement the bulging biceps, the twirling moustache and that slap-the-thigh celebration.
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