Analysing the success of Dhawan-Rohit partnership In ODIs
It was the start of India’s campaign in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy when they met South Africa on June 6th at Cardiff in Wales. Even before the game had begun, the Indian fans were in for a surprise when Dhoni promoted an underperforming-yet-backed Rohit Sharma to the opening slot to open with Dhawan. This makeshift opening pair went on to do wonders in that game with a 127-run-stand and almost six years later, this duo has become something special for Indian cricket. They are currently one of the best opening pairs in the world and are on the way to joining the list of the best opening pairs of all time for India, following the legendary Tendulkar-Sehwag and Tendulkar-Ganguly duos. In ODIs, the Dhawan-Rohit pair is the highest run-scoring opening pair in the world since 2013, and that’s not it. Among all current opening pairs with a min. of 25 inns since 2013, their average of 45.45 is the 3rd best and their innings/50+ stand ratio of 3.5 is the 4th best and they also have the highest conversion rate of 52%. Guess what, all this at a very respectable run-rate of 5.31!!
Since this duo lasts for almost the whole of the mandatory powerplay (8-9 overs on average), scoring at least a boundary every 1 or 2 overs isn’t such a difficult ask with all the field restrictions. But in between those boundaries, how often they rotate strike and the amount of dot balls they face would truly give us an insight as to why they have been this prolific, which is what this article would focus on. This analysis would be divided into the below parameters and these numbers (dots and strike rotation %) would be looked at for each of them separately:
● During Wins vs Other results (Tie/NR/Loss)
● In SENA (SA, Eng, NZ, Aus) Countries
● In ICC Event matches
● 1st Batting vs Chasing
Note: Stats have been considered until the 2018 away series vs New Zealand.
DHAWAN AND ROHIT’S INDIVIDUAL ROLES IN THE PARTNERSHIP
In the partnership, Dhawan plays the role of the aggressor and scores more boundaries than Rohit. The latter on the other hand, usually takes his time to settle in before unleashing himself thereby playing slightly more dots compared to Dhawan. So, each of their roles in the partnership is clearly defined – Dhawan takes care of the run rate while Rohit ensures he stays at the crease and supports Dhawan by not losing his wicket as he can wreak havoc later. Since their roles are completely different, this article won’t be comparing Dhawan and Rohit, but separately compare each of them over the mentioned parameters (eg. Dhawan’s stats across different countries, 1st vs 2nd Batting).
COMPARISON BETWEEN WINS AND OTHER RESULTS
This is a very intuitive stat to best convey the value of this combination to India in limited overs cricket. Their heavy contributions at the top during India’s victories have boiled down to this pair’s ability to reduce their dot ball percentage and keep the scoreboard moving often. We can dig deeper into this and see how these numbers vary for each of these batsmen.
Though expectedly both batsmen’s numbers reduce during losses compared to wins, Dhawan’s numbers tend to take a bigger hit compared to Rohit’s. The former’s Strike Rate reduces from 97 (during wins) to 75 (during other results) compared to Rohit’s decrease from 75 to 70. During losses/NR/ties, this partnership lasts only for around 5 overs on average as compared to their 10 overs during wins, and both batsmen have been dismissed almost equal number of times in the partnership. This also highlights Rohit’s inability to perform his role (preserving his wicket) when India don’t do well. So, both batsmen have been equally accountable for their team’s results on the field.
PERFORMANCES IN SENA COUNTRIES
This pair has managed at least a decent record in most of the countries, with South Africa being the only country where they have truly struggled. Their performances in each country are reflected by the dot ball and strike rotation (1s,2s,3s) percentages shown.
In Australia, Dhawan hasn’t been able to score as well as he usually does and his partnership average (total runs in partnership/no. of dismissals in partnership) of 28 and overall average of 38 down under justifies it. The dot ball and strike rotation percentages for Rohit only improve when he plays Australia in Australia. Rohit just loves playing in Australia as he averages 78 overall and 47 in the opening partnership there. Since Dhawan hasn't been quite at his best down under, Rohit has taken slightly additional responsibility upon himself than usual in the run scoring aspect and made his partner's work slightly easier.
In New Zealand, this pair manages a 50+ stand almost every 4 innings, which is quite decent to say the least. The balls faced break-up numbers for both suggest that neither of them fancy NZ too much, and their overall averages in NZ (37 for Dhawan and 33 for Rohit) bears testimony to that fact. But, they have still managed to stick it out together and score some runs for their team.
England, on the other hand, seems to be a favourite venue for both these batsmen, more so for Dhawan who averages 65 in England overall and a humungous 113 in the partnership. Rohit also has fared very well in England with an average of 57 overall and 42 in the partnership. Both batsmen have been able to create more scoring opportunities and no wonder this partnership has been very successful in England.
The reason for this duo failing to do well in SA has more to do with Rohit Sharma. He struggled to even survive at the crease (dismissed 5 times in the partnership during 2018 6-match series) as this partnership lasted just 4 overs on average. Dhawan, who averages almost 48 in SA, took first strike in a couple of ODIs in the 2018 series – usually Rohit takes first strike - to make things easier for his partner. Ironically for a player who plays the short ball well, it was the bounce from Rabada and Morkel that accounted for Rohit quite often in the Rainbow nation.
PERFORMANCES IN ICC EVENTS
When it comes to ICC events, this pair tends to go a notch higher when it comes to run scoring and their records in high-pressure knockouts also is quite impressive. Indian fans would rejoice after looking at their numbers in England, keeping in mind the upcoming World Cup.
Both batsmen step up and take responsibility in England, more so Dhawan as he loves England more than Rohit. In Aus and NZ, Rohit tends to take a bit more responsibility (Dhawan not at his best there). The knockouts percentages are comparatively closer to the overall ones for Rohit than for Dhawan and Rohit averages higher than his partner in knockouts (Dhawan – 40 and Rohit - 56). Rohit seems to enjoy knockouts slightly more than his partner, and hence takes more responsibility of run scoring in that scenario too.
PERFORMANCES WHILE BATTING 1st AND CHASING
The Dhawan-Rohit combination have done well during 1st batting as well as chasing. But they seem to thrive more in chasing scenarios, more so while chasing scores greater than 300 (at a run rate of 5.8) which is a big positive in modern day cricket where 1st batting teams are piling on runs effortlessly. Out of the seven 50+ stands they have notched up while chasing 300+ scores, 4 of them have come in SENA countries implying that they are far from being just home-track bullies in this aspect.
Understandably, both batsmen have had slightly better numbers while chasing and these numbers only get better when we consider big run-chases (300+ scores). We often talk about Virat Kohli when big chases come into question, but these two aren’t too far behind either. It isn’t a surprise that out of the 49 instances that India have won the toss in matches featuring these two at the top, they have chosen to field first 33 times.
After in-depth analysis of this pair’s performances across various parameters, we can narrow down on 2 major reasons for their success:
1. Both these batsmen have different but defined roles in the partnership and they have executed those to perfection almost every time. Rohit at no point tried to be as aggressive as Dhawan and Dhawan also just focused on his role instead of trying to become a Rohit or Kohli and grabbing the limelight.
2. Having said that, there have also been many situations where at least one of them have taken slightly additional responsibility on themselves in scoring runs (eg. Rohit in Australia, Dhawan in SA), especially when they know that their partner isn’t at their best. Such is the level of understanding between them that they know when each of them needs to step up.
The right-left combination and their contrasting playing natures coupled with the above-mentioned points make this pair a very dangerous one in limited overs cricket. But, this duo since the 2018 Asia Cup haven’t been at their prolific best, averaging less than 34. There is a silver lining here though – they have a home series against Australia coming up. And of course, there’s an ICC World Cup coming up in one of their favourite countries – England. I don’t think there’d be a better place and occasion for them to get back to their best form, which is exactly what every Indian fan would be hoping for.