Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his thoughts on whether the veteran Indian batter Shikhar Dhawan will be back in the squad for the upcoming T20 World or not.
Gavaskar feels that the Southpaw’s time with India’s T20 side is over as he is not getting any chances to play in the side even when the all-format star players are not available.
“No. I don’t see his name popping up,” Gavaskar said on air during the recently concluded India-South Africa T20I series.
“If it had to pop up, it would have been in this squad (to play Ireland). 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).”
Dhawan played his last T20 game in July 2021 that too being a captain of the young Indian side for a 3-match T20 series against Sri Lanka.
Since 2020, he has only featured in six T20Is and has been replaced by current limited overs vice-captain of team India KL Rahul for opening combination alongside the team India’s all-format captain Rohit Sharma.
The veteran had a very successful IPL 2022 season, in which he has scored 460 runs in 14 innings he played for Punjab Kings at an impressive average of 38.33 and with a strike rate of 122.67. He also achieved a milestone by hitting 450 plus runs in seventh time in a row (2016-2022).
Despite his heroics he was neglected by the selectors when they announced the team India squad for the big South Africa and Ireland series in the month of June.
During the last year’s T20 World Cup India tried the combination of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. But they all were failed miserably as Indian side didn’t even enter the semis.
However, the legendary Gavaskar feels that India will again go with the same trio combination and hope for a better results this time.
