Shikhar Dhawan wants to do well in domestic cricket to be back in the Indian team for Champions Trophy

Shikhar Dhawan settled himself in the Indian limited-overs team with his exceptional performance in the Champions Trophy 2013. Team India won the trophy in England – he was the leading run-scorer and Player of the tournament. Four years from there Dhawan no longer owns a spot in the team and is eager to regain it with the latest edition of Champions Trophy just around the corner.

He has the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 inter-zonal trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy – India’s premier one-day tournament in hand to play some big knocks and knock on the doors of the selectors who now look pretty comfortable with KL Rahul at the top.

“Absolutely. For that I have two to three months and three to four tournaments. I will do better. In ODIs my performance has been top-notch, I feel that if I do good (in these tournaments), there will be a great chance for me to get into the side,” Dhawan said talking about his comeback.

He hasn’t been able to make it to the T20I team and the chance he was given in the ODIs against England he foiled it with scores of 1 and 11 in the first two matches only to be dropped in the third. He was overlooked for the one-off Test against Bangladesh and hasn’t done anything to prompt the selectors to pick him for the Australia Test series either.

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He has been named in the North Zone team and is giving a lot of importance to the upcoming tournaments since that is the only way he can script his way back in the team. “All tournaments are important for me. If I have to make a comeback the thing is simple – the more runs I score will be more beneficial for me and my case will be stronger,” he told reporters.

Dhawan knows his lack of consistency to give good starts to the team is the main reason he has been dropeed. “Consistency, I could not do it. I tried completely, but did not happen. I could do better, but as a batsman I always analyse and I try to improve,” he said.

“And now I know that I have to score consistently to get in. I am an impact player, so if I stand and score runs, my team is going to win the game. That is my biggest strength and once I start doing it more consistently, it is going to be good for me and I will have good chance for making a comeback,” the 31-year-old opening batsman said.

Not many think the touring Australian team will manage to survive the tough test in India and Dhawan is among those. “Australia have been doing good and India is performing well. It’s going to be tough for the Australian boys to perform on turning tracks. Australian tracks are totally different. They are a little bouncy, but flat wickets. When they play on turning tracks, it’s going to be tough for them,” Dhawan said.

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The Delhi selectors recently named Rishabh Pant who made his T20I debut in the 3rd T20I against England as the skipper for the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the southpaw praised the 19-year-old saying, “He (Rishabh) is doing good, performed very well in Ranji Trophy and was rewarded with an India call-up. He has his own game, backs himself and that’s what I like about him,”