Out of favour Shikhar Dhawan congratulates India on a fantastic beginning

India have made a wonderful start to the four-match Test series against Australia after winning the opening match at Adelaide Oval by 31 runs. Moreover, they also have taken a 1-0 lead in the series with next match scheduled to start from December 14 at Perth Stadium. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first after which they racked up 250 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara scored a masterful century and dragged India out of the pits following a flurry of wickets in the pre-lunch session. The Indian bowlers made sure that their team musters a slender, yet useful lead of 15 runs. In the second innings, Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane notched 71 and 70 runs to help India set a daunting target of 323 for Australia to track down.

Australia lost wickets at an alarming rate, but kept chipping away at the target. Left-hander Shaun Marsh scored 60 runs from 166 balls to lay the platform. However, it was the Australian lower-order, which kept the home team in the game until the very end. The likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, and Pat Cummins tried to bat out of their skins.

A jubilated Shikhar Dhawan

Nevertheless, Ravi Ashwin got rid of Hazlewood to end Australia’s hopes. In the meantime, Shikhar Dhawan, who isn’t playing the Test series, congratulated India for the stupendous show. He also heaped praises on Pujara and Rahane for coming to the party in the hour of need. Dhawan hasn’t played Test cricket ever since India’s abysmal campaign against England earlier this year.

The left-hander didn’t play against the Windies as well. Meanwhile, expressing his happiness, he took to Twitter and wrote, “Congratulations team! What a fantastic start to the series. Our bowlers did great and superb innings by @cheteshwar1 and @ajinkyarahane88 @bcci Way to go! #INDvAUS,”

Here is Dhawan’s tweet

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