Batting great Sunil Gavaskar has made a bold statement on Shikhar Dhawan’s chances of getting a place in India’s 2022 T20 World Cup which will be held in Australia later this year. Dhawan has been out of India’s squad for almost a year and was not selected in the recently concluded T20I series against South Africa. While the southpaw also missed out on Ireland tour.
Dhawan had an impressive Indian Premier League season where he was the highest run-getter for his team Punjab Kings. In the 14 innings, the southpaw scored 460 runs in 14 matches at an average of 38.33.
Also Read: Veteran India Pacer Says His Role Has Remained The Same
Several young guns who performed well in IPL 2022 including Rahul Tripathi, Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh were selected for the upcoming tour but Dhawan missed out.
Batting great Gavaskar claims that looking at the current scenario he doesn’t see Dhawan getting a place in the T20 World Cup squad.
“No. I don’t see his name popping up. If it had to pop up, it would have been in this squad. A lot of guys have gone to England and he could have been in this squad. If he is not in this squad, I don’t see him ending in the mix (for T20 World Cup),” Gavaskar said in an interaction on Star Sports during the 5th T20I between India and South Africa.
Hardik Pandya is appointed as India’s captain for the Ireland tour as Rohit Sharma will be busy with the Test team for the lone Test against England.
While Gavaskar chose KL Rahul as his second opener for India in T20 World Cup alongside skipper Rohit Sharma.
“My opening combination would have KL Rahul if he’s fit and Rohit Sharma alongside him,” adding the batting great.
Former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith also agreed with Gavaskar and said that the Rohit-Rahul pair has done an exceptional job for India at the top and they are an absolute certainty for the opening pair in the mega ICC event.
“I will go with Sunny. They are outstanding players. Rahul and Rohit have done the business consistently and they are outstanding at the top of the order for India,” agreed Smith.
Get all the latest updates on Cricket News, Cricket Photos, Cricket Videos and Cricket Scores here