File photo of Rohit Sharma (left) with Shikhar Dhawan.
It will be a historic moment for Shikhar Dhawan when the southpaw will be leading a young Indian team at the upcoming Sri Lanka tour in Colombo. However, a lot more will be on stake for the 35-year-old opener, who will have to score big in order to be in the reckoning for a spot in the T20 World Cup in October-November, felt former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar.
There has been a cut throat competition among Indian batsmen for a place in T20 team with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan performing; forcing someone like Virat Kohli to consider himself as an opener with Virat Kohli, which makes Dhawan's path to T20 WC more precarious.
"Shikhar will have to get runs, if he wants to get that spot back in T20 cricket. There is so much fire power later on in the batting that Rahul has been opening in white-ball cricket. Virat Kohli also wants to open, which I don’t somehow see at this point with Rohit and Rahul both available," Agarkar said during a virtual media interaction.
Agarkar furhter stressed: Even if India win the series 6-0 (in Lanka) in the white-ball cricket, as far as the batting is concerned, it is the runs that will matter "(for Dhawan).”
The former Mumbai bowler further added that things are really tough for Dhawan as Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have a stronger chance to open for India at the World Cup over him.
At this point, certainly Rohit and Rahul are ahead of Shikhar [as opener] in my opinion. Rahul had a very average T20 series against England (15 runs in four T20Is and 177 in three ODIs), but otherwise his form has been exceptional in white-ball cricket," he said.
"Look it’s a very curious case, you almost felt like those two had overtaken Shikhar, but he keeps scoring runs and making a case and that keeps putting pressure on the likes of Rahul. Rohit is vice-captain of the white-ball team so there is no doubt about his place."
