Shikhar Dhawan lauds Team India’s fighting spirit; congratulates New Zealand on victory

India agonisingly fell short of the target by 18 runs against New Zealand and it ended their dreams of winning the World Cup. The top order failed for the first time collectively in the tournament and it cost them badly. However, throughout the competition, they missed their ICC event specialist Shikhar Dhawan who got injured and ruled out after the Australia game.

The left-hander had started the World Cup with a century against the defending champions but during the heroic innings, he was hit on his finger. The blow proved enough to rule him out of the mega event and the team missed him badly. No wonder, his presence in the semi-final also would have been crucial with KL Rahul being very much inconsistent in his trade at the top of the order.

Shikhar Dhawan was also disappointed after the close loss in the semis but lauded the team’s fighting spirit. There were no hopes at 92/6 but MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja took the game deep with a stunning partnership and the fans suddenly started to believe. But alas their efforts went in vain.

Kudos to your spirit

Shikhar Dhawan congratulated New Zealand for qualifying for their second successive World Cup final and also felt that the Men in Blue played extremely well to put up a fight. “We gave a great fight, boys! Kudos to your spirit. Congratulations @blackcaps on reaching the finals,” Dhawan tweeted after the match.

Here’s his tweet:

As far as the 33-year-old, he is likely to recover from the finger injury soon and it remains to be seen if he will be picked for the upcoming West Indies tour. While the likes of Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli look set to be rested, the selectors are also most likely to test some of the youngsters in order to build the team for the next mega event now.

Moreover, Dhawan is already 33 years old and there will be a discussion whether he will be around four years down the line for the 2023 World Cup which will take place in India.