Dhawan's miserable form making life tough for India

Tags: India tour of England, 2014, India, England, England Vs India, 3rd Test at Southampton - Jul 27-31, 2014, Shikhar Dhawan

Published on: Jul 30, 2014

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As predicted in the magnificent Lord's win, the triumph had dwarfed quite a few weaknesses in the Indian line-up, which could not be ignored. One of the biggest worries for them going into the

As predicted in the magnificent Lord's win, the triumph had dwarfed quite a few weaknesses in the Indian line-up, which could not be ignored. One of the biggest worries for them going into the Test was the wretched form of opener Shikhar Dhawan. And following yet another failure in the series on day two of the Southampton Test, their woes have only been augmented. Right from the start of Test series, the left-hander has never looked in any sort of touch. If anything, he seemed to be getting his eye in during the second innings at Trent Bridge, but gave his wicket away to a full toss. This was an early indication that luck wasn't in his favour.


The most worrying aspect about Dhawan's lack of runs in the series is not so much the lack of runs, but the identical manner in which he has been dismissed time and again. On Monday, James Anderson squared him up by going round the wicket, and moving the ball away from him. All Dhawan managed to do was edge the ball behind the stumps, angling the bat. A couple of times earlier in the series as well he was dismissed similarly, unable to get in line and cover the angle of the ball. Clearly, the swashbuckling left-hander has a problem with his technique under the conditions, which is there for everyone to see.


In international cricket the word spreads very fast, thus it is imperative that Dhawan works on this obvious weak link in his batting technique. Of course, he cannot change his style of play; he shouldn't for that is the manner in which he has achieved success, and climbed to fame. But, he will definitely have to make some minor modifications in his stance, to try and keep the edge of the bat out of play. Dhawan can take a leaf out of Alastair Cook's book, who was also struggling going into the third Test, but took guard differently to try and beat the bowlers' plan of getting him caught behind, and he was successful.


What Dhawan's poor run in the series has done is put India under pressure early on in each and every game. In Test cricket, the opener's role is paramount since his primary job is to see off the new ball. But, in this series only Murali Vijay has done the job to near perfection, and has carried on to greater things. The lack of support for him has meant that Cheteshwar Pujara has had to come in early each time, and has unofficially been the team's opener in the series. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the number three hasn't got the big scores in the series. Opening is a draining job, and for someone who isn't a natural opener, it can be even more energy sapping. Dhawan's bad run is thus making life tough for the others.


We are five innings into the series now, and Dhawan is yet to register a single half-century, unacceptable numbers for an opener. In fact, if you take away the 115 and 98 in New Zealand, he has constantly underperformed over the last few months. He was clueless in South Africa, and was on the verge of being dropped when he got that career-saving ton. Dhawan however cannot rest on those laurels for too long. India cannot afford an underperforming opener for too long. If he fails in the second innings at Southampton as well, India must seriously consider giving Gautam Gambhir a go in the next Test.


--By A Cricket Analyst

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