Indian top-order batter Shikhar Dhawan is known for his explosive batting style and impressive strike rate in the ODI cricket. While, Dhawan has failed to be part of the Test and T20 set-up, he has cemented his position in the 50-over game. Dhawan who often lead young Indian squad in the absence of seniors have been in terrific form lately and has admitted the fact that he is seeking to win a 50-over world cup for Men in Blue, which is scheduled next year in India.
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However, Dhawan was in a different avatar during the third and final ODI against Zimbabwe as he played a defensive inning which didn’t go down well with the cricket fans. After opting to bat first, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings for the Team India and added 63 runs for the 1st wicket. But in their quest to stitch crucial first-wicket partnership, both the batters took 14.3 overs before KL Rahul (30 off 46) got dismissed off Brad Evans in 14.6 overs. Dhawan who has an impressive strike rate of 92.07 in the 50-over format, added only 40 runs on board and took 68 deliveries with the help of five boundaries. He played at the strike rate of 58.82 before being dismissed off Brad Evans in the 20.6 deliveries.
The 36-year-old received lot of flak from cricket fans for playing so slow against comparatively weaker team like Zimbabwe. After Dhawan's inning ended, Twitter was flooded with several post from cricket fans who criticized the Indian batter for his poor strike rate.
Very poor approach from the batsmen, lack of intent, everyone just looking to make their own runs and not looking at it like a team game. A 50 of 80 balls against Zim will not cement your place in the team.#ZIMvIND
— Bihari Memes (@biharimemess) August 22, 2022
Shikhar Dhawan
Kl Rahul
Am I the only one who sees @SDhawan25 not playing the brand of cricket Indian team is playing recently.not scoring at 90+ strikerate a crime in modern ODI cricket
— Abdullah Mirsinge (@AbdullahMstar) August 22, 2022
Bhai @klrahul @SDhawan25 @ishankishan51 itni bhi jayda ijjat nhi deni thi @ZimCricketv ko. Thoda Tej bhi khel lo @mohsinaliisb .
— Kumar Amit ( Scrivener ) (@KumarAm85587919) August 22, 2022
Shikhar Dhawan is playing well but I think he need to look at his stike rate it's very poor from his standards and that is the main reason why is not considered for T20s #INDvZIM
— Vimal Rawat 🇮🇳 (@vimalrawat147) August 22, 2022
Shikhar dhawan: pic.twitter.com/ORpkIzZYxl
— TinTin🇮🇳 (@hemant_modi) August 22, 2022
Why Shikhar Dhawan is still playing intl cricket??
— Saurabh pokhriyal (@SaurabhPokhri11) August 22, 2022
Speaking of Dhawan's incredible batting record in one-day cricket, the southpaw has amassed 6647 runs in 158-matches including 17 centuries and 38 half-centuries at an impressive average of 45.84.