cricket

Updated: Nov 05, 2019 13:31 IST

Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar feels opener Shikhar Dhawan must rediscover his form soon which made him one of the most potent white-ball batsmen in the world. Dhawan has looked a shadow of himself since recovering from injury which he sustained during 2019 World Cup. In the first T20I against Bangladesh, Dhawan score 41 but he took 42 deliveries to reach there. Also, Dhawan had scores of 36 and 40 against South Africa and struggled to find form during the recently-concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he managed just one fifty in seven outings.

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Gavaskar stated that people will start to talk if Dhawan is unable to get back to his best in the next two matches against Bangladesh.

“Questions will be raised on Shikhar Dhawan if he doesn’t bat well in the next 2 matches. The team is not going to benefit if you’re scoring 40-45 runs from the same number of balls. He will have to think about this. When players come back after the gap, it does take a lot of time to get back the rhythm,”Gavaskar told Sports Tak.

The former India opener also said India will have to improve their rankings if they are to win the T20 World Cup in Australia next year. The ‘Men in Blue’ are currently languishing at fifth spot on the latest ICC T20I rankings and they will have to better it by winning against top oppositions in the coming months.

“In ICC rankings India is at 5. If they are to go to 2/3, they will have to win some big matches. And if they can’t do this, it will not be easy for them to win the (T20) World Cup,” Gavaskar said.

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Wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim scored a brilliant half-century as Bangladesh registered their first ever T20I victory over India here on Sunday.

In what was the 1000th T20 international, Bangladesh came out with an all-round performance as they defeated India by seven wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Needing 149 to break the streak of eight straight losses against India, Bangladesh rode on an unbeaten 60 by Mushfiqur to chase down the target with three balls to spare.