Sunil Gavaskar: Why Shikhar Dhawan, why not Rohit Sharma?

Indian opener Rohit Sharma was the talk of the cricketing scene back in December after he became the first batsman to score three double centuries in the limited-overs format of the game. Touted as one of India’s finest batsmen in recent times, Sharma failed to live up to his expectations during the South Africa tour.

On the other hand, his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan has grown as a player over the years and has put in some good performances of late for the national team. His 109 off 105 balls against the Proteas at Johannesburg was an example of how he quietly helps steady the ship for the Indian side. But as compared to Sharma, Dhawan is often criticised for a drop in form every now and then but the former escapes any such criticism from the board and fans.

Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar brought this topic up for debate in his column for TOI, as he asked the general public if wielding the ax on Dhawan all the time instead of Sharma was actually the right thing to do or not.

"Why Dhawan, why not Rohit Sharma? After all Rohit played more matches than Dhawan in South Africa. Not for a moment it is being advocated that Sharma should be dropped but it’s only to bring out that when the axe is to be wielded then Dhawan invariably tops the list," Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Times of India.

"That’s why the left-hander has to realise that getting brilliant 70s and 80s is not going to save his place. Only hundreds will and so like Virat Kohli hardly plays a lofted shot even in limited overs cricket and gets to 100s," he added.

"Dhawan also has to ensure he eliminates the risky lofted shots and gets hundreds. His scoring rate is tremendous anyway so that will not drop down but his centuries will increase and the usual call to leave him out will decrease," wrote Gavaskar.

Gavaskar also spoke highly of in-form domestic batsman Mayank Agarwal, who set a new record for most runs scored in a domestic season as he broke the 2000-run barrier when he took his tally to 2,141 runs. Gavaskar added that Agarwal’s rise should also be credited to Rahul Dravid who helped the player on his capacity as the India A coach.

"Agarwal’s progress has been tremendous from the hit and miss player he was a couple of years back. Rahul Dravid must take a big share of the credit for that for it is under his mentorship of the A team that Agarwal has become the consistent big score player he is today," added Gavaskar.