RANCHI (Agencies): Shikhar Dhawan’s prolonged bad patch is more about his mindset rather than technique, feel former players, who have watched the Indian opener’s dip in form over the past few months. Since Asia Cup where he was the top scorer, Dhawan has scored only 376 runs in 15 innings at a below par average of 26.85 and only two half-centuries to show for his efforts.
If pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile got him in the first ODI against Australia in Hyderabad, it was part-time off-spin of Glenn Maxwell that became his undoing in the second game after getting set. Both Aakash Chopra, who has opened alongside Dhawan in the first-class cricket and Vijay Dahiya, who has been Dhawan’s captain as well as coach in the Delhi team, agreed that he is going through a bad patch. But having keenly tracked his career, both the former Test players are confident that the left-hander will turn it around.
Even former India keeper and analyst Deep Dasgupta thinks that “mindset is an issue as Dhawan has always found ways to score runs, working around his technique.” “There is no denying Dhawan is going through a bad patch but with only three international matches left, I don’t see any drastic changes happening,” Chopra told PTI on the eve of the third game.
