Slowly but surely, Shikhar Dhawan is making another compelling case for selection

It’s the 2010s. India have just begun breaking out of their usual trend of succumbing in high-pressure ICC events and under MS Dhoni’s tutelage, have won the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. That victory, though, is followed by a string of departures, meaning that when the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy comes around, there is a lack of experience.

Virat Kohli has established himself as one of the best batters on the planet but he can’t be asked to shoulder the burden every time. Suresh Raina, one of Dhoni’s most trusted lieutenants, is not in the side. Dinesh Karthik has, by sheer weight of runs, cast himself into the eleven, although there remains a question mark over how he will fare on the big stage.

Murali Vijay and the mercurial Rohit Sharma have the requisite talent to succeed. Consistency, however, hasn’t been their greatest friend in recent times. Dhoni is still at the top of the game but apart from him and Kohli, there’s sadly not a lot to look forward to for the Indian batting purists.

India, though, have a left-handed opening batter who has just captured the imagination of the cricketing community. On his Test debut in 2013, he walloped along to 187 off 174 balls, laying the foundations for a remarkable victory against Australia. He has endured a middling IPL season thereafter but the pedigree is there for everyone to see.

So, India have a slight ray of optimism – optimism they hope wouldn’t evaporate into smoke once Shikhar Dhawan steps onto the big stage. A few months ago, he didn’t show any nerves. But ICC events usually hit differently. A lot of cricketers have failed, and it has defined many a cricketing career.

Over the course of the next month, however, Dhawan doesn’t even bat an eyelid. He creams runs for fun, bats like he always belonged, and most importantly, plays a pivotal role as India clinch the title. This, by the way, was a tournament where India didn’t even enter as favourites. Once Dhawan got going, though, it became a matter of when they will win the crown, rather than if.

Hence, in the often dreary and overcast confines of the United Kingdom, the legend of Dhawan and ICC events was born. It is, to his credit, an anecdote he has repeated often enough for it to not remain an aberration anymore.

At the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, he was the Men In Blue’s leading run-scorer and his average was only bettered by Dhoni and Raina. A couple of years later in the ICC Champions Trophy, Dhawan was again India’s leading run-getter as they reached the final.

His strike rate, which hovered at 101.8 was the second-highest for any Indian to have made a minimum of 100 runs at the tournament. For context, Kohli struck at 98.85 and Rohit struck at 86.85.

On those very shores in 2019, Dhawan announced himself in style for the fourth competition running. He wasn’t at his best against South Africa but crunched a top-class Australian bowling unit to all parts at The Oval, ultimately notching up a century. Unfortunately, he also broke his thumb during that World Cup, meaning that he couldn’t play a further part – ridding India of arguably their best clutch player in recent years.

So, from these references, it becomes clear that the Men In Blue are better off having the left-handed batter in the team, especially when an ICC event rolls into town. Not because he scores runs, but because he scores run when the team requires it most.

Should Shikhar Dhawan return to India's T20I squad?

But that is just where things get complicated because, well, the next ICC event lined up is the T20 World Cup down under this year. This, for those wondering, has perceivably become a format that has passed Dhawan by. Prior to the T20 World Cup in the UAE, India, in their pursuit to be more cavalier, looked beyond the opener. It wasn’t really a surprise then that they struggled to impose themselves against New Zealand and Pakistan.

A closer look at Dhawan’s IPL numbers indicate that he has been scoring plenty of runs in the past couple of years. Since the start of 2020, only KL Rahul has scored more runs than the left-handed batter. He also strikes at more than 130, which might seem a little laid-back but is excellent when considering he plays the anchor role.

For further context, Kohli, who will probably be India’s anchor at the T20 World Cup, strikes at only 118 in this period. Shreyas Iyer, the obvious other alternative, meanders along at 121. So, if India actually need someone to drop anchor, they might be better served asking Dhawan to take up the mantle. He scores runs. He scores them at a fair clip. And, remember, he scores them when his team needs it the most.

The biggest advantage of having the veteran in the mix is that he has seen all these pressure situations before. Quite often, he has walked into these circumstances with a smile on his face and has not been perturbed by the fear of failure.

If anything, he is emblematic of the phrase ‘play the bowler, not the occasion’. It might sound a little cliched but considering how India have approached high-pressure games lately, it seems it is a mantra not many have been able to embrace.

This season, too, that has come to the fore. He is the third-highest run-scorer in IPL 2022. The Punjab Kings also find themselves precariously placed in a mid-table logjam, and have to win almost all of their games. In the veteran, though, they have someone capable of triggering a turnaround.

Against the Chennai Super Kings, Dhawan single-handedly hauled them to an above-par total. Against the Gujarat Titans, Liam Livingstone might have stolen the limelight but Dhawan was always there – watching from the background and rejoicing in his teammates’ success as if it was his own.

That, by the way, is another incredible quality he brings to the fore. He is a real character in the dressing room and never lets the atmosphere dip. It might not be something that should decide whether a cricketer plays or not. But when that someone is scoring as many runs as the veteran, it becomes another irresistible string to the bow.

Having said that, there might still be a few who think Dhawan bats too slow for T20 cricket and that he has run his race. Some might even say that he doesn’t deserve a place in the Indian side because his T20I record is uninspiring.

But hey, Dhawan has never only been about runs. It’s always been about when he scores those runs, rather than how he scores them. There have been times – dating back to the 2010s, when India found themselves in a pickle but found a way out because the opener was willing to do what no one else was – fight fire with fire and treat the occasion like just another game.

It's an oft-used phrase. Not many, though, are able to master it. Dhawan is perhaps as close as any Indian cricketer has come in recent memory, meaning that a mechanism must be evolved to keep him in the fray for the T20 World Cup.

Slowly but surely, he’s making another compelling case for selection. And this time, it might just be too hard to argue otherwise.