Dhawan learned a lot from England failures

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Cricket365
October 13, 2014

India batsman Shikhar Dhawan felt that even though he failed to impress during the Test series in England, he learned a lot about his own batting on that tour, and will use those lessons going forward.

Dhawan was dropped after the third Test, averaging just over 20 in six innings, and was replaced by Gautam Gambhir. But he was not disheartened, looking ahead to the West Indies Tests this month.

Dhawan told PTI: “Those six innings that I failed probably will help me to play 50 good innings. Last one year has been a learning experience for me as I have seen both success and failure.

“But if you don’t know what failure is, you won’t be able to enjoy success. I am learning everyday.

“As you go along the way, you learn new things but my basic game has remained the same. You learn about the mental aspect of the game as in how to disturb the flow of the bowlers. You mature with experience.”

He did come back for the ODI series though, and did much better, scoring a 97 at Edgbaston. He thanked his skipper, MS Dhoni for keeping faith in his abilities.

He added: “It’s very important for a player to have his captain’s backing during a lean patch and I have received a lot of support from the skipper.

“He has been India captain for so long and he knows what a player requires. Even the support staff backed me to play my natural game.”

When asked who he prefered to open with, Rohit Sharma or Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawan was diplomatic, saying: “I love opening with both Rohit and Ajinkya.

“Ajinkya is the aggressor and hits the ball really well. I then take my time to play shots while at times it’s the opposite. It’s just been two [four] games with Ajinkya but I am enjoying it.

“It’s good when runs start coming from both ends.”