Shikhar Dhawan: the "showman" turns showstopper

Dhawan let his hair down on his Test debut and expressed himself to the fullest. The showman within wasreflected in his innings which turned out to be the fastest Test hundred by any mortal on debut. His 187 off 174 contained everything that Dhawan epitomises: power, panache and poignance.

There was power on view with those full-blooded drives against both seam and spin, while panache showed from the skilful handling of the unfriendly Mohali pitch. And there was poignance at having delivered against all odds after years of toiling.

He wanted to score those 187 runs desperately but deep down he was silently ecstatic as he had done it the way he wanted to. Because it is not overnight that you start living on your own terms!

Dhawan had been headstrong minus the gumption. He would cave in too easily to tight spots and didn’t back himself to go the distance. That one good knock against the Aussies on Test debut changed all that, and also everything about the way he batted, thought, prepared and implemented.

From then on, he has been batting like a man possessed, as the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Team India have found. He helped Sunrisers reach the playoffs in their inaugural IPL season with some purposeful batting and fielding to boot.

His three ODI tons and two half centuries encompassing the Champions Trophy triumph, the Celkon Cup, and the just-concluded victorious Zimbabwe series, followed by a record breaking 248 against South Africa A just a few days ago, have made Dhawan a player to watch out for.

He can be seen putting the fundamentals into place each time he takes guard these days. The head is still while facing the ball right under his eye. This allows him to play the ball late and with increased assurance.

He leans into his front foot drives which allows him to make his rigid forward stride an asset. His drives, as a result, pack a punch and the timing is heavenly. The strokes square off the wicket have a measure of control when Dhawan plays them these days.

He backs himself to attack the pacy short stuff with a poise previously unseen in him. His old bad habit of throwing away his wicket while trying to slog after a few dot balls seems to have been laid to rest. His 114 against South Africa featured everything from short arm jabs and blistering drives to sizzling cuts and deft placements.

As proof of the torrential form that he is enjoying, a stroke that he played in the series against Zimbabwe deserves special mention. He flicked an almost 90-miles-an-hour inswinging delivery from Jarvis over deep midwicket for the maximum: a shot high on the scale of difficulty. And this was no fluke by any means!

To play a stroke like that you have to account for the swing and pace, making sure you meet the ball just under your eye. Making sure you use the pace of the ball and not work against it is crucial. Dhawan sized all of this in a fraction of a second and essayed the superlative stroke with ease.

And that ease showed in his record-breaking 248 the other day too. Justin Ontong, the opposition skipper, reckoned it to be one of the best limited over knocks he had ever witnessed. It’s one thing to hit a six and another to hit ‘em ten rows back into the stands as Dhawan kept doing nonchalantly during his innings!

Now the record holder of the second highest individual List A one-day score, Dhawan has reinforced the fact that the rich vein of success he has enjoyed this year is no flash in the pan. He is putting a price on his wicket these days and is now a thinking cricketer, making him more dangerous than ever before. All of that augurs well for India’s upcoming tour of South Africa with Dhawan raring to go full throttle.

The showman in him hasn’t died, but is now a happy extension to his game. He would be well served not to get overwhelmed by the heady run he is having.

The show must go on, mustn’t it, showman?