India vs New Zealand 2017, 2nd T20I: Hits and Misses

#6 Miss: The Indian opening partnership

Both Sharma and Dhawan were excellent in the first game at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi, where they scored 80 off 55 and 52 deliveries respectively.

However, they failed miserably both individually and as a pair in Rajkot. They were back to the pavilion after scoring single digits and could not contribute to the chase in the slightest. Their immediate dismissal put extreme pressure on the batsmen to follow and apart from Kohli, no one else could respond positively to that burden.

While their cautious approach works well in ODI cricket, the Indian opening batsmen need to be wary of it in the shortest format of the game, more so in the second innings. T20 cricket is extremely fast and there is no time to make up for slow starts on 9 out of 10 occasions. Sharma and Dhawan must understand that and alter their batting style accordingly to fit the requirements of this format.

They are both talented batsmen and have proven themselves as explosive T20 batsmen in the IPL. Thus, twerking their opening stand a little bit more in T20I chases might not be as big a struggle for them as it might seem from the outset.