IND vs AUS | Team not dependent on just senior batsmen, affirms Shikhar Dhawan

After being majorly hyped, the series opener between India and Australia saw a rather anticlimactic result with Australia chasing down the target of 256 in just 37.4 overs. Unbeaten centuries by openers David Warner (128) and Aaron Finch (110) helped the visitors seal their biggest victory over India, at the Wankhede. India’s batting collapsed after Dhawan and KL Rahul’s 121-run second-wicket partnership was broken by Ashton Agar in the 28th over. 

However, Dhawan who top-scored for India believes that one defeat is not going to affect India’s momentum and ruled it as “one bad day in office”. And he, without any hesitation, responded that India’s batting not heavily dependent on its veterans. 

"See it is just one bad day in office. We played really well against West Indies, there all the batsmen did well. Shreyas (Iyer) has been doing so well and he is a young lad, one-odd innings is going to go here and there, but we as a team back each other and we don't focus or put too much on one loss," Dhawan was quoted as saying, at the post-match press conference, by TOI.

Currently, India is facing the Dhawan-Rahul conundrum and the fact that both batsmen are invaluable to the team has resulted in some changes. When asked about India playing with its batting-order and elevating KL Rahul to No.3 instead of captain Virat Kohli, Dhawan said it was a good knock by the 27-year-old that just boosts up his consistent form.

“Good on KL that he came at No. 3, he’s been batting as an opener in the last one or two series and the support staff asked him to bat at No.3 and he scored runs. He’s a brilliant player and he has been performing consistently, doing really well so I’m sure that he will keep doing well,” he said.