Shikhar Dhawan feels he is still good enough to do well in all three formats for India

After being left out of the Test squad to face Bangladesh, Shikhar Dhawan turned up with a wonderful performance in the north zone leg match of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. He scored 82 runs off just 47 balls that led Delhi to win comfortably against Services by 6 wickets. The southpaw made a strong point for the selectors for his consideration back into the squad.

After the innings, in an interview to Wah Cricket, he was delighted to be back in form. He was quoted as saying, “It was good to get some runs under my belt. That it helped Delhi clinch the T20 north zone championship made it even more special. Even when I was playing the England ODIs, I knew runs were just around the corner, I was hitting the ball well in the nets, doing all my preparations but unfortunately couldn’t go big in the recent series. But runs are always nice, and it was a good knock against Services where I could express myself completely.”

When asked about being dropped from the T20 side that played against England and also from the Test side against Bangladesh, he said, “It’s been a frustrating start to the New Year but I know that I wasn’t scoring runs despite the opportunities coming my way. Even against NZ, in the last Test innings, I played, my thumb was broken. I had a fracture but I still went out to bat knowing very well that another failure might keep me out of the game. I feel proud about it that I went out to bat for my team; these are small things that give you confidence.”

In his absence, the other openers like Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel and KL Rahul all played good hands on occasions that made his comeback even more difficult and the southpaw believes that it is hard to return but he takes that as a challenge and believes he still has it in him to represent the country in all the three formats.

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“Unfortunately, when I was laid down by injuries, around the same period other openers who played in my place started doing really well, so I knew that I was not scoring well in comparison and could be dropped. It’s not easy to be an opener for Team India, there’s good competition around. It hurts big time to be away from Team India but that’s the challenge I have to accept and win. I am just 31 and I know that I can come back again into the team, and I have it in me to dominate all three formats of the game”, he added.

While he remains out of the side, he is working very hard on his game and analysing all the mistakes that he committed in the recent failures and studying the good old times when he scored plenty of runs for India by watching the video recordings of his innings.

He said, “Actually I do all of that, to be honest. I watch all my videos where I have scored runs in the past, watch my recent ones where I have failed to learn what and where I can improve. I listen a lot to music and work extra hard at my fitness and spend more time at the nets. But one thing which I have really started working on recently is on my mental aspects. To play at the international level and do well consistently, it takes a lot to be mentally tough. I am trying to enjoy my cricket, my life and doing everything I can from my side to take my place in the team back.”

India will be taking on Bangladesh and Australia for a one-off Test and a 4-Test series respectively. With Abhinav Mukund being picked in the squad as the third opener, the chances of Dhawan making an appearance look bleak in that format. But he can surely target the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in June this year in England, the place where he was the leading run-getter in the tournament and also earned the golden bat award. India would certainly hope to have similar performances if he is selected in the team.