Former India player Wasim Jaffer has said that Team India should keep their trust in Shikhar Dhawan as an opening option for the upcoming T20 and ODI World Cups as well. He also feels Dhawan’s contributions to Indian cricket can’t be denied but he has been overshadowed by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
However, his comments came after he crossed 10,000 runs as an opener across all formats and also became the 10th Indian batsman – and second fastest – to cross 6,000 runs in ODI cricket as well. While praising Shikhar Dhawan, Wasim Jaffer said in a video on his YouTube channel: “The way the Indian team has come up the ranks in white-ball cricket in the past few years, a lot of credit goes to Shikhar Dhawan as well, even though sometimes his contributions remain in the shadow of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who are obviously outstanding players. But I think we shouldn’t underestimate Shikhar Dhawan and I see him, at least for a year or two, a contender to play in this T20 World Cup and also the 2023 50-over World Cup.”
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Jaffer further added that although there are a lot of players for the opening spot for the upcoming T20 World Cup, Dhawan’s stunning show in IPL in the last two years has made him a frontrunner for that post as well. While playing for the Delhi Capitals (DC), Shikhar Dhawan was the second-highest run-scorer in IPL 2020 with 618 runs at an average of 44.14. He followed it up with a stunning 380 runs at 54.29 in the first half of IPL 2021 as well.
He added: “You can’t rule out Shikhar Dhawan for the upcoming T20 World Cup. The way he has performed in the IPL in the past two years… even though we know Rohit Sharma is a surety to open, KL Rahul is a candidate, Virat Kohli said he wants to open, Prithvi Shaw is also coming up as a future contender, there are a lot of options. But Shikhar Dhawan shouldn’t be ruled out either in 50-over or T20 internationals.”
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“He has 17 hundreds in ODIs. And a surprising stat is that he has more ODI hundreds than Virender Sehwag (15), Gautam Gambhir (11) and even Yuvraj Singh (14)… comparisons aren’t a very good thing to do but the numbers speak for themselves. In 140-plus games he has scored over 6400 runs and experience matters a lot. When you got to an ICC event, play at a neutral venue, experience counts,” the veteran concluded.
