Dhawan’s colleague and India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin praised Dhawan, saying the senior player, who usually bats with a huge smile on his face, has been bringing the goods under Kohli and Rohit’s shadows for a long time.
Last year, India played 24 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), with Shikhar Dhawan appearing in 22 of them. He was also a captain in nine of them, one more than regular captain Rohit Sharma and two more than vice-captain KL Rahul at the time. By 2023, the left-handed opener is no longer even on the ODI squad. He was omitted from the next home series against New Zealand. Was Dhawan that awful at the time?
In 2022, he scored 688 runs at an average of 34, which was respectable but significantly behind his career average of 44.11. He also did not get a century.
The absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the duration of those 24 ODIs might explain why he was given a longer rope. Their workload was being regulated as India concentrated on the T20 World Cup. There was no room for Dhawan in India’s ODI XI until the prolific combination returned and Shubman Gill maintained his run-scoring binge in ODIs. He had already lost his position in the Test and T20I sides, and it looks like the team management has moved on from him in ODIs as well.
This, however, does not diminish Dhawan’s contribution to India. For over a decade, he was India’s most consistent white-ball batsman behind Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. One of the most successful opening partnerships in international cricket was his with Rohit.Dhawan’s colleague and India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin praised Dhawan, saying the senior player, who usually bats with a huge smile on his face, has been bringing the goods under Kohli and Rohit’s shadows for a long time.
The rise of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan has further weakened Dhawan’s cause. Kishan and Gill have both scored a double century in one-day internationals in recent months.