India vs West Indies: Shikhar Dhawan looks to end Windies hoodoo in Pune ODI

Dhawan has scored runs against oppositions around the world but looking at his past records, he hasn’t had the same impact against the Windies.

India opener Shikhar Dhawan will look to improve his ordinary record against West Indies when the two teams clash in the third ODI of the five-match series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, on Saturday.

File image of India opener Shikhar Dhawan in action during an ODI. (AFP)

Dhawan has scored runs against oppositions around the world but looking at his past records, he hasn’t had the same impact against the Windies. Even in the ongoing series, Dhawan scored 4 and 29 in the first two matches in Guwahati and Vizag respectively.

Dhawan’s average and strike rate against Windies are the second worst with respect to other teams against whom he has played minimum eight matches.

Dhawan’s scoring record against Windies also paints a very grim picture as in the last five matches, he has scored just one double digit score and his total score is 44, with an average of just 8.80.

Out of the current Indian top-3, Dhawan takes the bottom spot in the list of most number of runs scored against Windies in ODIs. Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are way ahead of the southpaw in this particular list.

But Dhawan will take confidence from the fact that it has been a wonderful year for him, minus the first two matches against Windies in the ongoing series. He has scored more than 800 ODI runs in consecutive years and in 2018, he has been scoring runs at an average of 54.53 – his best year in terms of batting.

The onus will now be on Dhawan to end his bad run of form against the Windies and set the record straight in Pune and in the process, also help the hosts take an unassailable lead in the series.