Shikhar Dhawan has turned 37 today. The Southpaw is a nightmare for bowlers when on song. Dhawan is one of the most selfless batters one could ever see and always plays for the team. The Indian batter last played a match for India more than 15 months back. Since then, India seemed to have moved on from him, as they got a very good batter like Shubman Gill, who has been able to establish himself as a formidable batter in the Indian lineup in limited-overs cricket.
Particularly in ODIs, Gill has all but sealed his spot in the XI with his incredible performances. It has shut down the chance of Dhawan making a comeback for India in the format. In T20Is, India has believed in younger players doing the job, which has forced the senior players to remain out of the XI. To date, Dhawan has the best average for a batter in the big tournaments arranged by the apex board in ODIs. He averaged 65.15 in the Champions Trophy and the ODI World Cup.
Here are the three instances where India missed him in a big knockout game.
3. T20 World Cup 2022 Semifinal
T20 WC 2022 (Source: Twitter)
India lost the match after managing to score only 169 runs on the board. On a fresh surface like the one in Adelaide, where the batters found it easy with every passing over to bat, India struggled to score runs early in their innings. If not for the finish from Hardik Pandya, things were going to be worse for India. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli batted slowly in the innings, as they could not quite time the ball well. India needed someone to step up to the top.
KL Rahul failed in his job as well. India missed the services of Dhawan in the match, as they needed someone to attack at the top. Dhawan with his ability to take on the bowlers at the beginning of the match would have had an impact against England. Even in the middle overs, he could have used his sweep shots against Adil Rashid to disturb his rhythm, which was not possible from the duo of Virat and Rohit. A score of 169 could have been better, to pose a serious challenge to England.
