Shikhar Dhawan wants to be Virender Sehwag: Matthew Hayden

Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden said that KL Rahul and Murali Vijay are his natural choices while playing abroad. The three contenders for the opener’s role- Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul have done well whenever they have been assigned a job. The selectors are currently having a ‘happy headache’ as they now need to pick two names for the openers’ slot for the upcoming tour to South Africa.

In the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, both Rahul and Vijay batted well. And we are likely to see Vijay walk out with either these two once travels to the rainbow nation. Hayden said Dhawan wants to be Virender Sehwag but he feels the southpaw doesn’t have the ability of the explosive former Indian opener.

Hayden bats for Rahul-Vijay combo

“Murali Vijay and KL Rahul, to me, are the natural choices when it comes to abroad performance. Having said that, I have seen Shikhar (Dhawan) evolve as a player as well. He wants to be Virender Sehwag but I don’t think he has necessarily got the ability that Virender did, to kind of go up and down (the batting order).” Hayden said.

The Aussie also added that Dhawan has done extremely well in the last one year and therefore the ball is in selector’s court now.“I think he is a vastly improved player in the last 12 months in Test match cricket. That’s fair. The gut feeling with how and a difficult role for selectors to have as well, but it is a good problem to have. Because how culture driven by performance is exactly what you need,” he said to DNA.

“KL is worth persisting with youth. He will play all formats of the game and I just believe Murali Vijay as his partner will bring him through that, not to mention the combination what I consider to be the most important foundation of Test match cricket and that is the engine room being Nos. 1, 2 and 3, and his relationship with Pujara is special. Those factors, for me, are really significant,” he said.