Shikhar Dhawan sports team India helmet in DY Patil T20 tournament; courts controversy

DY Patil T20 tournament is currently in progress in Mumbai and is hogging the limelight as three of India’s top cricketers are featuring in it. Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, returning from injuries, are representing Reliance 1 in the competition in a bid to prove their fitness. And the Indian opener, Dhawan has courted a fresh controversy by sporting team India helmet on which BCCI‘s logo is present.

The BCCI, in 2014, had cleared that the players representing the country should not sport the BCCI logo on their helmets while playing a domestic game. If done, that will be considered a violation of its code of conduct. Hardik Pandya, too in his comeback in the same tournament had worn the helmet with the BCCI logo and it remains to be seen if both the players face any action from the BCCI.

As far as Shikhar Dhawan’s form is concerned, the left-hander was amongst the runs on Wednesday in the game against DY Patil ‘A’. He scored 43 off just 28 balls with six fours and a six before getting stumped off Varun Chakravarthy. Dhawan had bagged a five-ball duck in the previous game against CAG.

Will Shikhar Dhawan be picked in the India squad for South Africa series?

Even as Shikhar Dhawan’s place in India’s T20I squad is in danger with KL Rahul emerging as the preferred opener in the last couple of series after doing well, it remains to be seen if he makes a comeback for the South Africa ODIs. He last featured for India in the home series against Australia in January 2020 and was injured just before the New Zealand tour.

Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya, who is also playing in the T20 competition, has set the stage on the fire with his all-round skills. He smacked a 37-ball ton on Tuesday and also went on to pick a five-wicket haul with the ball later. Though Bhuvi hasn’t done much with the ball so far, even he might have proved his match fitness and it will be interesting to see if the trio come straight back into the squad for the ODI series against South Africa.