Aakash Chopra feels Shikhar Dhawan should have played Ranji Trophy to gain form

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan has been under fire for not scoring big runs ever since his good run of form in the 2018 Asia Cup which the Indian team winning the tournament under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. Since then, Dhawan has managed just two half-centuries during the first two ODI matches of the five-match series against New Zealand away from home.

Former players, who have watched the Indian opener’s dip in form over the past few months, have speculated long about Dhawan’s patchy form and have concluded that its more about his mindset than his technique. Every since top-scoring in the Asia Cup 2018, Dhawan has scored only 376 runs in 15 innings at a below par average of 26.85.

Aakash Chopra begs to differ

Shikhar Dhawan’s former opening partner for Delhi state team and former India player Aakash Chopra agreed that the former is going through a bad patch. His opinion was supported by former Delhi player and coach Vijay Dahiya. Both the former Test players are confident that the left-hander will turn it around.

“There is no denying Dhawan is going through a bad patch but with only three international matches left, I don’t see any drastic changes happening,” Chopra was quoted as saying by India Today.

“If he has scored 5000 plus ODI runs (5199 from 125 games), it means that he has been around for a reasonable period of time, seen ups and downs to have scored that many runs. His record in multi-nation tournaments (World Cup, Champions Trophy, Asia Cup) is fabulous, so it could well be a matter of time that he is back in form,” Chopra further pointed out.

Chopra laments Dhawan not playing Ranji Trophy

Aakash Chopra felt that Shikhar Dhawan should have played Ranji Trophy to stay in form and instead of staying back in Australia after the T20I series, could have come back to play Ranji Trophy at home. He said, “He exactly didn’t set the stage on fire against West Indies at home and since he was not in Test side against Australia, he could have come back and played Ranji Trophy. It would have helped him as well as our domestic cricket. But that didn’t happen.”

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