IND vs AFG: Shikhar Dhawan has his say on dominating Rashid Khan

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan registered an 87-ball century on the first day of the historic Test against Afghanistan at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The southpaw was never in a spot of bother when he faced the likes of the opponent’s weapons Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Zadran.

Shikhar Dhawan mainly attacked the 19-year-old spinner Rashid Khan and surprised many cricketing fans around the world. Speaking about this, the opener went on to say that he had a two-year experience of facing Rashid Khan in the nets during his stint with SRH alongside the spinner.

“The good thing is that I had faced him [Rashid Khan] in nets for two years because we play for the same team in IPL. So, I was used to his bowling and that helped me,” said Dhawan at the end of the first day’s play as quoted by Cricbuzz.

While Dhawan came up with the aggressive approach, his opening partner Murali Vijay opted to play defensively, bringing up his century in 143 balls. When asked about Vijay’s defensive approach, Dhawan said that each and every cricketer vary their approach towards the game to achieve success.

“See each one will have different game,” he said. “A team is formed of different characters – I am a different character, my game is different to what Vijay’s is. Each player has his own qualities. Some people like to step out and play and some others don’t prefer that. Each individual has his own game and play accordingly. My strength is to step out and play and I play accordingly.”

The Southpaw also hailed Afghanistan’s fightback in the final session of the day and hailed Rashid Khan, “Yeah, they came back very well in the last session. They are playing their first game, I am sure they are going to learn a lot of things. They are going to go a long way,” he said and quipped, “Of course, Rashid is a top-class bowler and I enjoyed my battles with him. Since I dominated [this one] I enjoyed it but as I said, he is a great bowler.”