'Most accolades go to Rohit and Kohli but this guy has been a serious cricketer': Shastri calls PBKS star a 'gun player'

Scoring an unbeaten 88 at the Wankhede, the IPL veteran had a milestone game against CSK on Monday.

They were once considered the Big Three of Indian cricket. Even in the build-up to the 2019 ODI World Cup, the contribution of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma along with him in the batting order was India's pride, and best by any top-three combination in world cricket then. However, the other eventually began to fade away and subsequently lost a place in the T20 World Cup team last year. But former India head coach Ravi Shastri was full of praise for the IPL veteran and hailed him as a “gun player”. (IPL 2022 FULL COVERAGE)

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma; Ravi Shastri

Shikhar Dhawan had a milestone game against Chennai Super Kings on Monday at the Wankhede Stadium. In his 200th appearance in IPL, the Punjab Kings opener scored an unbeaten 88 runs that helped the team beat CSK by 11 runs. Eb route, he reached the milestone of 9000 T20 runs and 6000 runs in IPL. And with his knock, he surpassed Rohit to become the leading run-getter against a single opponent in IPL history. 

Speaking to Star Sports at the end of the match, Shastri was impressed with Dhawan's mindset and calculative approach in the game. He then admitted that while in Indian Kohli and Rohit takes home all the accolades, Dhawan has remained a serious cricketer and rightfully deserves all the milestones he achieved in the game.  

“He measured what he had to do by reading the conditions, seeing what the pitch had to offer, see what his role was, the shot selection, playing around with the field, choosing the right bowler to hit and the reason why I feel he spoke beautifully is that it showed his mindset and the way he has adapted himself over the years. I call him a gun player because in this country most of the accolades have gone to Rohit and Virat but this man has been a serious player right in between there. And he deserves all the accolades for 6000 runs, 200 games, Man of the Match award, finishing off in style and like he said he has started advising youngsters,” he said. 

Dhawan now has 302 runs in eight innings in IPL 2022 and stands third among run-getters while Rohit and Kohli continue to struggle with their form.