The enigma named Shikhar Dhawan- Is there a method to his madness?

Shikhar Dhawan

It wasn't the happiest of nights on Tuesday for both the Indian Cricket team as well as its fans. Touted to walk past New Zealand in their opening encounter of the 2016 ICC World T20, the Men in Blue fell into their own trap, falling like a pack of cards while chasing 127 on a turning pitch and eventually losing by 47 runs to leave the full house at Nagpur and also the millions watching at home disappointed.

There were several aspects to the batting failure on Tuesday and one of them that left an impression on me was the dismissal of Shikhar Dhawan. Now, I won't dwell too much into the technical glitches or even the mode of dismissal as much as I will, on what it portrayed about the method to his madness.

A lot of people felt that when New Zealand had the upper hand when they won the toss and opted to bat, but for India, I believe it actually wasn't the worst toss to lose simply because nobody could have told what a good score was after one glance at the pitch.

 

As it turned out 126 proved to be enough, but on another day, the story could have been different. Walking out for the chase, Dhawan was coming on the back of a terrific man-of-the-match performance against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup final in Mirpur just 9 days back and one would have thought he would enter the match with some confidence and look to play himself in and try to get his campaign off to a good start. 

It was just 127 to get and so, it wasn't as though he had to blaze away from the beginning. But what does he do? Tries to play a ball that has straightened after pitching and is trapped lbw for 1 to get the team off to the worst possible start.

Is there a method to his madness?

The dismissal made me think about two things:

1.Did Dhawan observe the action on the field?

Now India was fortunate to have lost the toss because they didn't then have to think what a good score on that wicket was and the minute one saw even someone like a Suresh Raina turn the ball, they should have understood that chasing down any total wasn't going to be a cakewalk.

If you are the opening batsman, in such a scenario, you would have already started to think: “Right, this is the shot I need to avoid on this pitch or this is the one that I need to play more,”. You try to be ready to what lies ahead and then go out there and execute it. Also, there was a fielder placed, so the maximum he could have got was 1 run. 

Had Dhawan taught that way, I am quite sure the sweep shot would have fallen straight into the 1st category. It was unnecessary for him to play that stroke and it led to his downfall.

2.He would have surely played on worse decks to know how to counter a pitch like Nagpur

If one has a look at the home grounds of some of the players, it provides a clearer picture of who actually should have succeeded on this pitch and there is no doubting that Dhawan, while growing up in Delhi, would have played on worse pitches at the Feroz Shah Kotla and found a way to get runs and so, had he thought about the many knocks that he would have played on such difficult tracks, he would’ve for sure adjusted much faster than some of his other teammates and actually played a key role in helping India get off to a good start.

The pitch at Nagpur was nowhere close to as bad as the ones that Delhi have dished out and all it required of him was to recollect how he had countered those devils and play in a similar manner here.

Now, not for a minute am I suggesting that the team management should drop him and make Rahane the opener, because, in terms of making an impact, Dhawan can provide just the impetus if he gets going.

The point is somebody has to tell him to think and assess what is going on and not play according to his will. I am all for players playing their natural game, but not at the expense of letting the team down.

The team has a few days to recover from this loss and Dhoni and the rest have some thinking to do before the Pakistan game on Saturday.