IPL 2018: Match 25, Player Battles – Shikhar Dhawan vs Ravichandran Ashwin

Sunrisers Hyderabad might be pleased with winning four of the six matches they played with all of them coming with the help of their bowling brilliance. The SRH bowlers ensured they didn’t concede 150 in their first three games making it easy to the batsmen to chase down. However, a collective bowling failure against KXIP and CSK saw them falling short in the 180+ chases. The win against Mumbai Indians saw SRH bounce back but the questions over batting line-up remain unsolved.

While their captain Kane Williamson batted with consistent scores throughout the tournament so far, the middle order has been below par. Manish Pandey turned out to be a big disappointment for SRH whom they bought for 11 crores. The idea of promoting Wriddhiman Saha didn’t work while Deepak Hooda failed to grab his chances. Yusuf Pathan scored some valuable runs in the last couple of matches and is expected to bring some depth to their batting.

Shikhar Dhawan started the tournament with a blistering 78* against RR and followed it with 45 in the game against MI. However, an elbow injury saw him missing out the game against CSK and losing his touch in Mumbai. The home team will be hoping to see Dhawan play in the way he batted in the last couple of months in the limited-overs. The left-hander will be up against the Kings XI Punjab who have a couple of right-arm spinners who could trouble him.

Shikhar Dhawan vs Ravichandran Ashwin:

Dhawan showed his intentions of taking on the bowlers early in the powerplay overs. His idea of scoring as many as possible in the first six overs saw raised his success rate in the T20 format over the last 6-7 months. However, Dhawan might be aware of his record against Ravichandran Ashwin who is bowling a couple of overs in the powerplay. Dhawan scored only 51 runs in the 66 balls he faced from Ashwin in the IPL. He scored only two fours in Ashwin’s bowling scoring at an S/R of 77.27.