'He's an IPL legend' - Irfan Pathan lauds Shikhar Dhawan for consistent performance

Shikhar Dhawan has been dubbed as an IPL legend by former India cricketer Irfan Pathan for his constant efforts and consistent outcomes in the Indian Premier League over the years. In the IPL 2022 match between the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and the Gujarat Titans, Dhawan struck an unbeaten 62 off 53 deliveries.

His well-paced effort, alongside aggressive knocks of Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone enabled PBKS to chase down the 144-run target with four overs to spare. Punjab bowlers had restricted GT to a below-par total, which was followed by the batters chasing the score with ease and winning the game by eight wickets.

“He (Dhawan) is an IPL legend, he is that type of a batter. The 15th season is going on and there have been only two seasons where he has not scored 300 runs. He has scored at least 300 runs in every other season, he brings that sort of performance. He was required to show his experience today and he did that. The way he built his innings at the start when the ball was moving around. It was extremely necessary for the Punjab Kings not to lose too many wickets at the start,” Pathan told Star Sports.

He put his full experience and played an extremely important knock: Irfan Pathan

Praising the southpaw for his efforts against GT, Pathan said that Dhawan ensured that PBKS did not lose too many wickets as he stuck by the side and stayed until the end.

“He was leaving the new ball. When Mohammed Shami and Ferguson were bowling, he was not trying to repeatedly put bat to ball. But once he got set, the ball stopped moving, he put his full experience and played an extremely important knock. When Shikhar Dhawan scores runs for Punjab Kings, the other batters score runs around him and can play fearlessly. It was a praiseworthy knock,” Pathan stated.

Dhawan is IPL’s second-leading run-scorer with 6153 runs, placed right below Virat Kohli, who has 6469 runs under his belt. With plenty of powerful batsmen in their lineup, Dhawan is likely to play the dependable batters’ role for the Punjab Kings.