Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal has applauded India batsman and captain Shikhar Dhawan, saying that his calm leadership style is too similar to that of former India captain MS Dhoni. However, under Dhawan, India won the ODI series in Sri Lanka 2-1. And, on Sunday, they won the first T20I of the three-match series also.
Shikhar Dhawan has earned a lot of praise for his captaincy. However, Akmal said on his YouTube channel that his captaincy reminded him a lot of Dhoni. Praising Dhawan, Akmal said: “Shikhar Dhawan’s captaincy in the first T20I was really good. The bowling changes and field placings were impressive. Dhawan seems like a cool captain. In fact, I can seen shades of MS Dhoni in Dhawan’s calm and composed captaincy. He took excellent decisions under pressure and did not panic even after Sri Lanka got off to a quick start. To win by 38 runs after the Lankans were 20 for no loss after two overs was an excellent effort and Dhawan must get some credit for it. Of course, the bowlers were also brilliant.”
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Kamran Akmal also praised India’s bowling which successfully defended a total of 164, especially the performance of the speedster Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who claimed 4 for 22. The veteran Pakistan cricketer said: “Vice-captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar brought all his experience into play. He is a class bowler. A target of 165 is very much attainable in today’s T20 cricket but India’s bowling was top-notch and Sri Lanka’s batting could not stand up to the challenge.”
Meanwhile, after India’s 38-run win, captain Shikhar Dhawan said that the team was confident of defending the total as they knew the bowlers would do well. Dhawan stated: “Sri Lanka were playing well but we knew our spinners will get some turn. Yuzi (Yuzvendra Chahal) and KP (Krunal Pandya) bowled really well. And even Varun (Chakravarthy), playing his first match.”
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He also admitted that India were 10-15 runs short of the total but added that they bounced back well after losing an early wicket of Prithvi Shaw, who got out of the very first ball of the match. The Indian captain, Shikhar Dhawan further stated: “I thought we were 10-15 runs short but we felt it was still a good total. We played quite well after losing a wicket on the first ball. Getting to 50 in the powerplay was good. I think only 5% scope of improvement. Surya is a great player and we enjoy watching him bat. He was taking pressure off me as well.”
