Rashid Khan is delighted watching Shikhar Dhawan’s whirlwind knock

India’s tour of UK got underway today with the first T20I against Ireland in Dublin. The home team won the toss and skipper Gary Wilson asked Virat Kohli’s team to bat first. Both the skippers at the toss admitted that it looked like a really good wicket and they both wanted to bowl first. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan walked out to take on the Irish bowlers and it was a sight Indian fans had waited for long.

Dhawan was the first to get going. He played the cuts, his favourite shot through the off-side, swept the ball and flicked it as well. The inexperienced bowlers were bowling to his strengths, away from the body or into the pads. He punished them every time there was the slightest error in the line or the length.

That’s not all, the left-hander also hit sixes down the ground on both the sides. Dhawan dominated the proceedings in the first ten overs as his partner Rohit took his own sweet time to get going. The left-hander was scoring his runs at double-quick pace and had a strike rate close to 200. He got to his fifty soon enough and after facing just 27 balls; this was his 7th fifty in T20I cricket.

Dhawan’s IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mate Rashid Khan was watching him bat and got excited. Rashid clicked a picture of his TV and posted it on his Instagram story lauding Dhawan for the effort.

Here is the screen grab of his story:

The Indian team on the back of Dhawan’s 74 and Rohit’s 97 managed to score 208/5 in 20 overs. They would’ve wanted to get a lot more runs but Peter Chase in the last over three big wickets of MS Dhoni on the second ball, Sharma on the third and captain Virat Kohli on the 5th ball.

It is a big total and will be an uphill task for the Irish to it down against the mighty Indian bowling attack that is extremely experienced in this format.

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