Hyderabad: Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan bid farewell to international and domestic cricket on Saturday while taking to social media. In his retirement post, Dhawan also thanked his childhood coach Madan Sharma for playing a vital role in shaping his career. Madan spoke with ETV Bharat' Sanjib Guha regarding Dhawan’s cricketing career.
Shikhar allowed Rohit to play with freedom
While speaking on the strong and weak points in Dhawan’s game, Madan opined that playing aggressively was his strong and weak point as well.
“He used to play with aggression which allowed Rohit to take his time to settle on the crease. The strategy to play with aggression worked for him on a few occasions when he played big knocks. But, he used to lose his wicket in pursuit of aggression as well,” Madan remarked while speaking to ETV Bharat.
Was A hardworking lad from the start
Madan praised Dhawan for his hardworking nature.
“He used to put in hard yards right from the beginning of his career. I am very happy that he played so many matches for India, but I would have been happier if he had played till the ODI World Cup 2023,” he added.
‘Dhawan was selected in U-15 for the first time. But, he was dropped from the team after the first match. He then excelled in Under-17 cricket and earned a place in the Asia Cup. He continued his good performance in domestic cricket He was soon picked in the Indian team for the U-19 World Cup.”
Dhawan was the best opener after Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag
When asked to rate Dhawan’s performance as an opener, Madan opined that he was the best opener India has got after Sehwag and Gambhir.
‘There is a massive difference in how cricket was played earlier and how it is played today. Earlier it was played in an orthodox manner. The run-scoring is very rapid now. Sehwag started playing that way playing for the national side. Dhawan scored a ton in his debut Test. In my opinion, he is the best opener for India after Sehwag and Gambhir.” he concluded.
