Veteran Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have played a lot of games together and they are one of the most prolific openers in the history of ODI cricket. They first opened together in the 2013 Champions Trophy and did so for almost a decade. However, Dhawan recently said that Rohit Sharma deserved a lot of credit for his success as the duo shared a great understanding and knew each other’s game very well.

Speaking to the Times of India, Shikhar Dhawan said: “My collaboration with Rohit & his support at the other end at the top of the order has been instrumental in providing strong starts to the team, setting the foundation for successful chases and big totals. I seriously give credit for a lot of my best performances to Rohit’s support.”

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In 115 ODIs, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan scored 5148 runs together at an average of 45.55 with 18 century-stands as well. However, Shikhar Dhawan felt Rohit Sharma was the ideal partner for him to express himself early on. Dhawan often used to take the role of an aggressor while Rohit Sharma loved to bat long and deep as well.

“Rohit on the other end gives that sense of comfort and assurance. I think our best innings was a 193-run opening stand against Australia in the fourth ODI at Mohali in 2019 & the second best will be against Pakistan in the 2018 Asia Cup in Dubai where we put together a 210-run stand for the first wicket,” Shikhar Dhawan concluded.