Dhawan played like Bradman, lauds Ed Cowan

Shikhar Dhawan

New Delhi - Australia’s Test opener Ed Cowan was all praise for India’s Shikhar Dhawan and said the debutant batted like legendary Don Bradman in the Mohali Test.

Dhawan struck a whirlwind record 187 runs on debut. It was not only the all-time fastest by a debutant but also the highest by an Indian on debut.

Cowan was happy that Dhawan will be missing the fourth Test starting here on Friday as Dhawan fractured his left hand while fielding in Mohali and has been advised six weeks’ rest.

“That’s great news. He played like Don Bradman the other day. That was good as innings as I have seen any from any player in the world,” Cowan said.

“The fact that he did it in his first Test innings, he just had a day out and every batsman sometimes has a day out. It just happened to be his first crack at it. We bowled a lot of variety, he treated every ball on its merit and at the same time there was so little room for error. It was a hell of an innings,” said Cowan.

The opening batsman also had words of praise for young Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

“It is important to know opening bowler vs opening batsman, he (Bhuvneshwar) gets a fair crack at you with the new ball twice a game. He has got me twice in six innings, so it is not that it is a bogey thing,” he said.

Cowan said Bhuvneshwar was different from Ishant Sharma as he gets the ball to skid.

“Why he is a different bowler to Sharma is because he skids the ball, he doesn’t bowl the ball very quickly but every ball is at the height that it is going to hit the stumps. It is something that I am aware of, it is something like the 50/50 kind of dismissals that could go the other way,” he said.

Cowan said Bhuvneshwar bowls at a height from where he can have more chances of having a batsman lbw.

“It is something I am aware of but it is not something that is handicapping my thought process because I know how he is trying to get me out. He was too good in Hyderabad and the other day but he is a very canny bowler in these conditions and every ball is that sort of height where he can get you LBW,” he said.