Don't Think It's End of The Road for Shikhar Dhawan: Former India Batting Coach

Former batting coach Sanjay Bangar feels that it’s still not the end of the road for Shikhar Dhawan in the Indian cricket team. Dhawan, who has been the mainstay in India’s ODI set-up for around a decade, failed to get a place in the series against Sri Lanka. The veteran southpaw had forgettable outings against Bangladesh as he registered strings of low scores on the tour – 7,8 and 3. While on the other hand, young openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill have impressed many this year with their consistent run and were picked over Dhawan in the squad for Sri Lanka ODIs.

Bangar feels that Dhawan is still fit and has all the ability to make a comeback in the ODI team and pointed out that the southpaw led the Indian team on numerous occasions last year in Rohit Sharma’s absence.

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“I will still not count him out. He is quite fit and he is performing. Yes, he has not scored big runs in two or three series but in those series as well he captained India to wins with a young team,” Bangar told Star Sports.

Bangar suggested that the southpaws played a key role in India’s massive success in ICC tournaments in the past.

“Right-left combination, the big tournaments India have won – like Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh were there in the 2011 World Cup. So left-handers always create that effectiveness along with right-handers,” he said.

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The former India batting coach asserted that currently, the Men in Blue don’t have many left-handed openers in the white-ball set-up.

“There is always a premium attached to left-handers. As an opening batter, you don’t have any other left-handed options other than Ishan Kishan. You have many right-handed options – you have Ruturaj Gaikwad and KL Rahul, but there is no option for left-handers.”

“I don’t think it is the end of the road for Shikhar Dhawan. There are 20-25 games still to go. If Ishan Kishan becomes unavailable for some reason, then again I think Shikhar comes back into the fold,” he added.

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