'India need to look beyond Shikhar Dhawan' - Gautam Gambhir

Shikhar Dhawan, the left-handed Indian opener has been under the scanner of many fans and his critics for his below-par performances in the shorter format. The southpaw has been criticised for his run-a-ball in approach in T20 games due to which his side fails to accelerate in the match. Now, Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian opener has opened up saying that the management should start looking forward instead of relying on Dhawan.

India is currently hosting Sri Lanka for three-match T20I series. This is the first series for both the teams across all the formats in this year. The series got off to a poor start as the first game got abandoned due to damp patches on the wicket but the second game in Indore was successfully played. All the eyes were on Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul to propel the Men in Blue to a flying start.

Gautam Gambhir wants India to find new alternatives

The Indian fans had expected that Dhawan, who is currently struggling with his form with the bat, might play a good and swashbuckling knock but that was not the case. The left-hander failed to play with a high strike rate, which has been a problem with him for long. Dhawan scored 34 runs off 29 balls on a strike rate of 110.34 while his partner was smoking runs with the bat at a strike rate of 140.63.

Post Dhawan’s performance, Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian opener feels that India should start looking for the alternatives of the southpaw. According to Gambhir, Dhawan has not done really well when it comes to the shorter format in recent times. Gambhir also added the fact that he is not a big fan of numbers but Dhawan has failed to leave his impact like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul. Hence, this is the best time for India to start searching for his replacement keeping T20 World Cup in mind, which is just 10 months away from its commencement.

“In one-day cricket, not in T20 cricket. He has not done a lot in T20 cricket if you see the entire stat. I am not a big believer in number and stats he has not had that impact, the kind of impact that people like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul has had on T20 format. So probably, India needs to look beyond Shikhar Dhawan,” Gautam Gambhir said in a show on StarSports.

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