Tremendous ICC record stands between Shikhar Dhawan and the exit door 

As the new Indian selection committee sits to pick the squad for the ODI series against Sri Lanka at home, the biggest talking point is likely to be about Shikhar Dhawan.

The veteran opener, who turned 37 a few days ago, has been experiencing a torrid time with the bat. He has four single-figure scores in his last five ODI knocks and seemed completely out of rhythm in the series in Bangladesh.

Dhawan has crossed the half-century mark only once in his last 11 visits to the crease in ODIs. The lack of big scores, coupled with the simultaneous rise of young guns Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan, couldn’t have come at a worse time for the left-handed batter, with the 50-over World Cup less than a year away.

According to a PTI report, a call on Dhawan’s ODI future is likely to be taken after the new selection committee is formed. Head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma’s views will also be given serious consideration.

A superficial take on the matter could easily lead an armchair expert to the conclusion that the veteran batter has had his time; now it is about looking towards the future and the betterment of Indian cricket.

With Dhawan, though, it has always been a case of ‘write him off at your own peril’. Numerous times in the past, epitaphs have been kept ready for the underrated cricketer's career, only for the Delhi dasher to emerge stronger each time.

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Never about form with Dhawan

We can talk about good and bad form with regard to Rohit, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul. But Dhawan’s case is quite unique. He could look in supreme form one day and totally ragged a couple of days later.

Despite never being tagged in the same league as Rohit and Kohli, Dhawan has nevertheless produced wonderful numbers in his ODI career - 6793 runs in 167 matches at an average of 44.11 and a strike rate of 91.35 with 17 and 39 fifties. There's not much to complain about there.

The biggest reason why the new selectors as well as the team management will have an extremely difficult time taking a call on Dhawan’s future is because of his sensational record in ICC tournaments. He has played 10 World Cup matches, smashing 537 runs at an average of 53.70 with three hundreds to his name.

Dhawan hit a superb 137 against South Africa in 2015 in Melbourne. And while he was ruled out of the 2019 edition after two games, he did score a match-winning hundred against Australia at The Oval.

After analyzing his performances in the Champions Trophy, we can see that he has produced far more dazzling numbers - 710 runs in 10 games at an average of 77.88 with three hundreds - one each against South Africa, West Indies, and Sri Lanka.

What is incredible to note here is that Dhawan did not go into the 2015 or 2019 ODI World Cups with a bucketful of runs against his name. Quite the contrary. In the build-up to the 2015 edition in Australia and New Zealand, the opening batter struggled in the tri-series Down Under.

He had registered scores of 2,1,8 and 38 in four matches. There were concerns over his lack of runs heading into the ODI World Cup, but Dhawan was able to flick the switch as soon as the ICC event got underway.

A similar pattern was observed ahead of the 2019 ODI World Cup in England. Barring his 143 against Australia in Mohali, Dhawan registered poor scores of 28, 13, six, 0, 21, one, and 12 ahead of the mega tournament.

By now, though, Team India weren’t worried as they were confident of the ICC star rising to the occasion. And he did. Cruelly, what could have been another tremendous event for him on the big stage was cut short due to injury.

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What’s changed since 2019?

Incidentally, Dhawan hasn’t scored a century since his magnificent ton against Australia during the 2019 ODI World Cup. He did manage to play a number of impressive knocks after returning to the team following his recovery.

His performances in 2022 are a big cause of headaches for Team India though. The left-handed batter has scored 688 runs in 22 matches at an average of 34.40. Even if critics are willing to bypass these stats, passing them off as decent, what cannot be ignored is his strike rate of 74.21 - completely unacceptable in modern-day ODI cricket.

The fact that Dhawan no longer features in the T20 format for Team India hasn’t helped his cause. The Men in Blue have not played a lot of ODI cricket over the last year as the focus was clearly on the T20 format for obvious reasons.

Every time an ODI series was played, it was like a mini-comeback for the veteran batter, and unsurprisingly, he looked rusty. He hasn’t played first-class cricket since 2019, although he did turn out for Delhi in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20) and the Vijay Hazare Trophy (List A) earlier this year.

With the 2023 ODI World Cup being the clear focus now, Team India will be seen playing a lot more 50-over matches in the build-up to the competition at home. Simply put, it translates to more opportunities for Dhawan to get back among the runs.

However, continuing to back him would mean not rewarding performances by youngsters Gill and Kishan. At the same time, you wouldn’t want to totally ignore Dhawan’s experience, keeping in mind that it’s the ODI World Cup that the team is preparing for.

Kohli showed in the T20 World Cup this year why experience and success on the biggest stage matter a lot. It can be argued that Dhawan’s batting is in terminal decline. Then again, the veteran opener has six 50-plus scores to his name in ODIs, even in a forgettable 2022. So it’s not like he hasn’t scored runs at all.

The new selection committee will have to make one of the toughest decisions in Indian cricket as soon as they take over. Is Dhawan still the one or is he done? You wouldn’t want to be in the selectors’ shoes for sure!

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