MELBOURNE: If skating on thin ice could win trophies, Shikhar Dhawan 's cupboard would have been jam-packed by now. Every time the opener comes under scrutiny for his poor run of scores, he manages to salvage his place in the Indian team with a good knock before hitting snooze mode again.Since the start of home series against South Africa late last year, Dhawan has just one 50-plus score (23, 23, 13, 7, 60, 0, 0, 45*, 12, 39, 33 and 21) across ODIs and Tests. In Australia on this tour, he has contributed nine and six in two matches. India have posted scores of over 300 in both games.Since his pulsating Test debut against Australia in 2012, Dhawan has been anything but consistent. He did sparkle in the 2013 Champions Trophy, but lost his place on the tours of South Africa, where he looked out of place on lively decks of Wanderers and Durban.He was dropped from the ODI XI after four failures in New Zealand in early 2014 but revived his fortunes with a hundred in the Auckland Test and backed it up with a 98 in Wellington.Again, in England, his struggles against the moving red ball saw him being replaced in the Tests but he bounced back with a 97 in the limited-overs series.The script was similar during India's previous tour of Australia in late 2014, where after three straight failures in the Tests he was left out but returned strongly in the World Cup.Clearly, the shade has extended the light in Dhawan's case, and yet he continues to enjoy the full backing of not only Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni but even the selectors, who seem to be willing to give the Delhi man a long rope.What explains it better is that there is no back-up opener in the current squad of 15, which means there is no option for India but to live with Dhawan's failures and hope others fill-in for him. Kohli backed him in India, saying, "We have to be patient with someone like Shikhar because he is an impact player and we need to give him as much confidence as we can. When he gets going he will win you the game for sure."Dhoni echoed the Test captain's thoughts after Dhawan fell to yet another rash shot in the Brisbane game, saying, "Shikhar is someone who loves to play his shots. And if you have someone who plays shots right from the start, there will be periods when he won't score runs. He will play a shot that you can say is a rash shot, it was not needed at that time. But that is the time you are supposed to back your strokeplayers, because those things keep happening in this format."Dhawan will be playing in Melbourne today, a place he calls 'home.' Hopefully, he will be doubly motivated.