When the last season’s Indian Premier League (IPL) had to be halted, Shikhar Dhawan was flaunting the Orange Cap with three half-centuries in eight innings. He ended the season, which resumed in the UAE before the T20 World Cup, as the fourth-highest run-getter. A spot in India’s World Cup squad seeking a feistier approach at the top, however, did not open up. (IPL 2022 FULL COVERAGE)
Punjab Kings Shikhar Dhawan celebrates his half-century (ANI)
After the halfway mark of this edition, Dhawan again sits right up there in the list that matters. The Punjab Kings opener's 302 runs from eight outings—with two fifties including a match-winning unbeaten 88 against Chennai Super Kings on Monday—is the third highest so far. And, as another T20 World Cup beckons this year in Australia, the left-hander is shaping up well to raise his hand once again for the selectors to ponder amid the numerous faces for the opening slot.
For last year’s World Cup, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were the first-choice openers. Ishan Kishan—who got just one game—was preferred over Dhawan as the back-up option in the squad, the young Mumbai Indians southpaw a more naturally-aggressive stroke player from the get-go. Even as those courageous shots and consistent form has deserted Kishan of late, Dhawan—as indeed the likes of Faf du Plessis and Rahul himself—have shown this season that there could still be value to a T20 innings which doesn’t necessarily kick-start on fourth gear.
Dhawan chose a milestone match—his 200th IPL game—to showcase that. Against a CSK bowling attack that was disciplined for the innings’ first half and on a used Wankhede Stadium pitch that wasn't quite a belter, Dhawan assessed the conditions and paced his innings intelligently to swell Punjab’s total to 187/4 even after a watchful start.
Let’s break Dhawan’s 59-ball 88 not out into three parts: He took 20 balls to get to 24 with one four and a six; accumulated 31 runs off the next 20 with four fours and struck 33 in the remaining 19 with one six and four fours. “I felt that the wicket was stopping a bit. So I gave myself a bit of time,” man-of-the-match Dhawan said at the presentation ceremony.
“Then I tried to go for the big shots but couldn't connect. Still, I kept my calm and knew that I could score runs later as well. Once I get set, I get a lot of boundaries. I know my strengths, and back myself. And it worked my way,” he added with a big smile.
In a Punjab team stoked with power-hitters that generally like setting the pace early, Dhawan lends a fine balance. More so on pitches that are unlikely to get any flatter as the season goes deeper. And yet, both of Dhawan's half-centuries this season—he scored a 50-ball 70 against MI—have come at a strike rate of 140 and above. No surprise that Dhawan highlighted terms like “presence of mind” and “smartness” while describing his approach in setting a total. “It’s not just power-hitting but playing with the fields as well,” he said.
Precisely what he did as CSK bowled wide to him at the backend while protecting the shorter leg side boundary. Dhawan carved out angles through the off and got funky with his feet movement in manufacturing shots behind him to find the boundaries. “It was crucial one of the top-order batters bat through the innings,” Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who gave Dhawan good company in their 110-run second wicket stand against CSK, told reporters. “It was not the greatest of wickets to bat on. But we had a proper plan. The way that Shikhar bhai paced the innings… the way he spoke to me—all we wanted to do was get a boundary ball an over and then rotate the strike. It happened according to plan. And hopefully Shikhar bhai will carry his form for the next games as well.”
There’s little room to doubt that looking at the last three IPL seasons. Dhawan ended up with 521, 618 and 587 runs; the 2020 edition comprising two centuries and four fifties striking at almost 145. It's the kind of consistency that on Monday also saw him become only the second batter after Virat Kohli to cross 6,000 runs in the biggest T20 league in the world.
Asked about it in the presentation, Dhawan took a long pause before saying, “Process.”
“I always talk about the fact that I'm a very process-oriented person," he added. "I always focus on that—my fitness, my approach towards the game, my skills. I know that the result will take care of itself.”
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