Shikhar Dhawan ready to take on the Proteas

Shikhar Dhawan ready to take on the Proteas: The South Africans are visiting India for a series consisting of 3 T20 Internationals, 5 ODIs and 4 Test matches. The series has been christened ‘Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela Series’.

Team India take on the visitors in the first T20 International on the 2^nd October 2015, at the picturesque HPCA Ground, Dharmashala.

BCCI has picked up a 15 member squad for the T20 games out of the 30 probables.

Shikhar Dhawan is an important cog in the wheel and an integral part of the Indian dressing room in all formats of the game.

After a disastrous and a forgettable tour Down Under for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014-15, the tri-nation ODI series (with England as the third team) and the World Cup 2015, Team India found themselves in a very delicate situation.

Even a tour of 3 ODIs to the neighbouring Bangladesh could not do much to redeem the situation since they lost the series.

Giving rest to the seniors, a squad consisting of the fringe players and a few discards, embarked on a tour to Zimbabwe consisting of 3 ODIs and a couple of T20Is under the leadership of a vibrant Ajinkya Rahane.

The team met with a great success winning the ODI series 3-0 and levelling the T20I series 1-1.

This was followed by a three-Test Cricbuzz series to Sri Lanka. This tour was important for both the teams on three counts:

• Team India would be playing the first full-fledged Test series under Virat Kohli.

• The Sri Lankan legend, Kumara Sangakkara was retiring from Tests.

• Team India was on the hunt for a series victory on Lankan soils after 22 years.

The series proved to be useful from India’s point of view. Losing the first Test at Galle, they came back to win the second and third encounters quite convincingly and broke the 22-year jinx.

Shikhar Dhawan last played competitive cricket in the first Test of the Cricbuzz Trophy at Galle, when he went on to anchor the innings and went on to score 134 runs off 271 deliveries with the help of 13 fours in the first knock.

In the process, he also went on to register a record partnership of 227 runs for the third wicket along with the skipper, Virat Kohli.

In spite of these best efforts India lost the match only to win the other two and the series.

Dhawan, meanwhile, injured himself and was unavailable for the second and third Test matches.

Once back home from the Emerald Isle, Dhawan needed to recover from the injury and get back to the groove in time for the SA series.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh A is on a visit to India for a series of 3 ODIs and a couple of four-day games with the India A and the Ranji Trophy 2014-15, Karnataka.

Having recovered from injury, BCCI picked up Dhawan to lead India A in the four-day encounter. The game is currently on in Bengaluru. This was a good opportunity for Dhawan to prove his fitness and form.

Quite clearly Dhawan did not disappoint at all.

Winning the toss, the visitors who were put into bat, ended their first innings at 228 runs with Shabbir Rehman scoring 122 runs and Shuvagata Hom contributing 62 runs.

In reply, India A started off very well with the first wicket partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund realising 153 runs.

Dhawan played a very patient innings to get to his 150 runs, facing 146 deliveries with 18 fours and 3 sixes. This is the kind of an innings that Dhawan needed to get back his confidence ahead of a tough series.

The southpaw displayed positive intentions by sending the visiting bowlers on a leather-hunt, for which he is known.

Hopefully, this innings would just be the beginning of things to come for Dhawan in the coming days and he would able to establish the supremacy of his bat over the South African bowlers.