Ranji Trophy 2019-20 | I had to change my game to bring restraint to my batting, reveals Shilkhar Dhawan

After suffering a deep cut to his knee during a Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, Dhawan had to miss being a part of Bangladesh and Windies series. Being already sidelined from the Test side, he suffered a test of his character in his first first-class match in more than 15 months, when he took the field against Hyderabad on a cold Delhi day and came out triumphant. 

Against Hyderabad's three-man pace attack - Mohammed Siraj, left-arm quick Chama Milind and M Ravi Kiran - Dhawan played excellently and rescued the side from 4/2 with an unbeaten on 137 off 198 balls to help Delhi reach 269/6 by stumps. After the innings, Dhawan admitted that he had to curb his instinct to score big.

"It's more like English conditions. With my experience, I can now gauge the pitch by looking at it once. I didn't play many booming drives outside the off-stump. I used to go after them when I was younger. It's more like the ‘box cricket where you keep bat and pad close to have a tight defence," the 34-year-old said after the day's play, reported Times of India.

This was Dhawan's first 50-plus score in FC cricket after his century against Afghanistan almost one and half years ago in Bengaluru and with the Sri Lanka T20s starting in a few days of time, it would have surely made him happy. On being asked what brought about the change, from the time he used to constantly flirt with the balls outside the off-stump, Dhawan had a definite answer.

"I had to change my game. There was a time when the left-arm spinner was bowling, I was itching to go after him. I even got out while chasing wide ball on 67 but it was called a no-ball. I had to rein myself in with wickets falling. It's satisfying that I could apply myself on such a challenging pitch. I am enjoying the innings," Dhawan added.

Cricket FootBall Kabaddi

Basketball Hockey

SportsCafe