Shikhar Dhawan had been a mainstay in India's playing XI up until 2022 but the emergence of other stars coupled with his own dip in form at the international level has pushed him out of the limelight. Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan have made the most of the chances that they are getting.
In an exclusive interview with SportsTak, the veteran opener revealed that he was actually quite scared when Kishan smashed his double century during the ODI against Bangladesh in December 2022. Then, he thought he was out of the team. "We are used to such a situation. When Ishan Kishan slammed a double century against Bangladesh, then for a moment I thought I could be out of the team," Dhawan said.
However, the swashbuckling batter also said that he had the backing of Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid, who asked him to focus on the upcoming 2023 ODI World Cup, hosted by India in October-November.
"When Rohit took over the captaincy he along with Rahul Dravid backed me enough. They told me they wanted me to focus on my cricket and that my vision should be the next World Cup," Dhawan said. "2022 was very good for me, I was consistent in ODIs. But there is this young guy who has been doing well in two formats, and when my form dipped in a series or two then they gave a chance to Shubman and he has lived up to their expectations."
"This is not something new in cricket. Or this happened just with me, plenty of others have met with the same fate. There are times when you play well throughout the year and then your form drops for one month or two, sometimes that becomes bigger than your performance throughout the year. When a captain, coach and selector take a decision they put plenty of thoughts into it,x" he added.
But more than Kishan, Gill has surpassed expectations, hitting century after century across different formats of the game. Dhawan said that if he was a selector, then he would choose Gill over himself. "I feel the way Shubman is (playing at the moment). Like he was playing two formats and performing well in Tests and T20s. He was playing more matches in the international circuit and I wasn't."
"If I was the selector then definitely would have given the chance to Shubman. Would have selected Shubman over Shikhar," said Dhawan.
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