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Shikhar Dhawan

dhillon28

U19 Debutant
At 27 too - where have India been hiding him, or does his innings say more about Australia's bowling than Dhawan's batting?
This guy always had a lot of talent and was earmarked from his U19 days to be a great indian batsmen. He did not kick on due to mental frailties (which he even admits to himself). But he did the hard yards in first class cricket and took a very professional approach to developing his batting; it has now paid dividends.

Australia bowled a lot of poor deliveries at him; short and wide ones, full tosses etc but that was only after he pressurised them into bowling badly by driving many good length balls on the up through covers, pulling bouncers, consistently piercing the gaps on full deliveries, dancing down the wickets to spinners and seamers etc. Pitch was definitely on the batsmen friendly side, BUT bearing in mind that he's on debut, his partner M Vijay who got 167 in the last test match has only scored 80 odd so far at a strike rate of 45 and Michael Clarke (one of the two best batsmen in the world ATM) got a duck on this same batting track, says something about this performance. Simply put, it is truly a once in a lifetime, outstanding performance.
 
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dhillon28

U19 Debutant
Interesting knock, most of his runs were boundaries off length balls just outside off stump. It could be that he has unorthodox strengths and attacks need to rethink the standard line and length to bowl. Obviously their techniques aren't similar but it still reminded me a little of the early Phil Hughes knocks.
Definitely agree about unorthodox strengths, will be interesting to see how he goes against a different bowling attack with different strategies.....very reminiscent of P Hughes's first knock in RSA i.e. deadly drives resulting in bowlers not knowing where to bowl to him. The challenge for him now will be to progress from this innings. Mendis, Hughes, Duminy and recently Du Plessis have shown that outstanding debuts don't necessarily translate into successful test careers.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
This guy always had a lot of talent and was earmarked from his U19 days to be a great indian batsmen. He did not kick on due to mental frailties (which he even admits to himself). But he did the hard yards in first class cricket and took a very professional approach to developing his batting; it has now paid dividends.

Australia bowled a lot of poor deliveries at him; short and wide ones, full tosses etc but that was only after he pressurised them into bowling badly by driving many good length balls on the up through covers, pulling bouncers, consistently piercing the gaps on full deliveries, dancing down the wickets to spinners and seamers etc. Pitch was definitely on the batsmen friendly side, BUT bearing in mind that he's on debut, his partner M Vijay who got 167 in the last test match has only scored 80 odd so far at a strike rate of 45 and Michael Clarke (one of the two best batsmen in the world ATM) got a duck on this same batting track, says something about this performance. Simply put, it is truly a once in a lifetime, outstanding performance.

Well, dunno how much of it was the track when he decided to run down the track the first delivery he faced....
 

dhillon28

U19 Debutant
Well, dunno how much of it was the track when he decided to run down the track the first delivery he faced....
Undoubtedly the most important determinant of this great performance was great form combined with a fearless approach. The only reason I mentioned the track being on the friendlier side was because so many of his shots were played on the up on the offside. Very difficult to play those same shots on wickets that favour bowlers. In fact, the only players I have seen do that consistently over a career is Sachin , Lara and Ponting. Clarke and Amla and both really good at doing it currently and it is one of the reasons they are the two best batsmen in the world.
 

the big bambino

International Captain
Cricket has seen 2 pretty outstanding debuts recently with Dhawan and Rutherford. Rutherford played against the world's 2nd best fielding their no.1 attack while Australia, you feel, were down Pattinson from our strongest attack. Judging by our own 1st innings score you can't say the team's performance was unduly effected by the homework scandal either.

In the end his score, and partnership with Vijay, propped India's immense 1st innings and was half the flag pole too. All this on debut and what a strike rate. Stunning effort. Congratulations to him though I wish he saved it up for another opponent.

EDIT: Forgot about Swanny missing for England.
 
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SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Shikhar Dhawan does not have "unorthodox strengths" unless one considers scoring at better than a run a ball century on debut as one. His batting is fairly orthodox with lovely strokes, mainly drives, on either side of the wicket. Every batsman favours one side more than the other - he favours the off with the cover and extra cover drives of his being in the master class category. This is not the time to run him down for he played a superlative innings and on debut which makes it completely awe inspiring. Yes he was playing at home and against one of the weakest Aussie attacks one has seen. Put against that a debut by a 27 year old ( that makes him more Yuvraj's contemporary than those he was competing with for this debut) . It was an unbelievable knock.

Of course, he may not live up to it. We have to wait and watch but you can't run him down for it. Yes he may not have been your choice for the next young man to break into the Indian side and yes you may not have invested as heavily into him as you did into Badri (and lost all) but don't blame him for that. No one except the idiotic brigades are calling him the next cricketing God but let's not turn our heads from what was an incredible innings no matter what. If Dhawan never scores another hundred in Tests, it still won't take away that fact. So chill.

Coming to a realistic assessment of his game and his possibilities . . . He clearly is the typical Indo-Pakistan young batsman. Likes to plonk his front foot forward and drive. No not on one side of the wicket only but whichever side the ball deserves. So far so good. If the ball is slightly short of length, he still puts that front leg out and drives through the line - and does it well. Good enough for this track and with not much lateral movement and low bounce. Okay so far.

When it is banged in short, he still puts that front foot out first but then is quick enough to transfer the weight on his back foot and pull/ hook with power and grace keeping the ball down exactly as prescribed. Much better in this than the Rainas and Gangulys and Yuvis but a bit of a bother I am afraid. Both the lovely pulls he hit for boundaries were made from the crease just with weight transfer - in one the front foot was clearly much in front of the crease. Doable on this wicket but in South Africa or Perth ?? Hmmmm

He did not, as far as I can recall, and I watched almost every ball he played, he made no attempt to actually move that right foot back and across towards the stumps. One can say that this wicket did not need that - maybe, but Murali Vijay played alongside and on more than one occasion played back in defense as well as drove off the backfoot.

If I was an Australian bowler, or a South African, I would be scratching my chin and wondering about that. Mind you Pakistan has had a generation of openers who never learnt to play back properly but then Pakistan has also produced no great opening batsmen in this generation. If I was the Indian coach, I would worry as well. Gambir does not have any great backfoot technique and it took the world some time to find him out. So maybe Shikhar will manage but this bothers me and I really look forward to seeing him play the SouthAfrican or the Pakistani or even English attack on quicker bouncier tracks.

It is interesting that by and large the openers in India who come from the West (Mumbai school) or from the South (Chennai and Bangalore schools) tend to have much better backfoot play than those who come from the North (Delhi). The problem is true not just for openers by the way.

One hopes, Shikhar Dhawan will turn out to be a quick learner as Kohli appears to be. On his side is the momentum of this fabulous debut which will carry him for a series or so but after that . . .

Til then let's celebrate one of the finest debuts ever irrespective of conditions and attacks.

By the way, five batsmen have scored more runs than Shikhar on debut and, starting with Foster's 287 (the highest Test innings at that time) each of them went on to score a double century in the debut innings. I would suggest that all those who talk of the Aussie attack being modest look at the attacks the four that followed Foster faced and see how many of them were great bowling units. One of these four batsmen was the great George Headley but the English attack he faced in that 1930 home series wasn't even England's B side at that time.

No one ran down young Headley's double hundred on debut and of course he became a legend in his own life time but the bowlers he faced were the weakest he played in his entire international career - short but spanning two decades.

Have a heart
 
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SJS

Hall of Fame Member
One more thing which stood out about this debut innings was the attitude of the debutant. As many have said, he was fearless. Yes that and much more. He was playing as if he was having nets and the senior bowlers in his club were taking a break. He was not just nonchalant , he was dismissive of the bowlers, the entire opposition, the setting and the occasion. After seeing him for a half hour I was wondering if the fellow had had too much to drink of the more potent stuff. But then he wasn't throwing his bat around, hit almost nothing in the air. It was unreal how every ball seemed to be exactly in the place where he thought it would be when he decided I am going to do this or do that. The gaps in the field seemed everywhere.

I missed Vishwanth's debut hundred against Lawry's Australians because that was in Kanpur but those who saw it were amazed that this was a man making his debut . Then he came to Delhi and, although he did not get a hundred, batted absolutely delightfully and one wondered how a youngster could bat with such freedom. Of course Vishwantah was facing a far better attack and he displayed every stroke in the game even in the forty odd he scored but I did think back of that debut and realised that Vishwanath did not display the disdain for the opposition and the occasion that Shikhar Dhawan did. It is not surprising that everyone is asking where have India been hiding him. That is what I thought as well for he was playing as he may find difficult to do again . . .

Manjrekar asked Laxman about what kind of a character this guy is and Laxman made a startling remark. He said words to the effect "you saw that amazing innings - that is Shikhar Dhawan. All that positivity, that attitude, that devil may care outlook is Shikhar Dhawan" I was stunned when he first said that innings was Shikhar Dhawan for it is a great compliment in itself.

Dhawan comes from a Punjabi household like myself. Punjabis, inspire of all the material progress they have made since they came as one of the biggest refugee communities in 1947 after partition, are basically conservative people. They are gadget freaks, have loud lifestyles and everything about them is loud and about display but at heart and in matters of culture and social norms they are conservative, by and large. The rat tail under the very short cropped crew cut, the double ear rings and the moustache to twirl are the kind of things a Punjabi boy will do but families and Punjabis in general do not take such stuff too well. But youngsters will be youngster. What surprised me more was that Shikhar fell in love with and married a Bengali girl from Australia and she still lives down under with their two daughters and he visits heras often as he can

Trust me for a Punjabi that is very surprising and eyebrow raising. I think it says something about a truly modern young lad from Delhi who takes life as it comes, lives it on his own terms, does his own thing and does not bother if the world thinks of some of it as an attitude of irreverence - his attitude to the solemn occasion of his debut might, just might, be explained by this.

I believe he has a custom made and VERY powerful motor cycle and will prefer to rocket around on that than any BMW's or Mercs that the run-of-the-mill Punjabi youth will and do.

It should be fun following this boy's career
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
I just hope he is not a lazy **** like Sehwag and actually tries to build on his gifts and ensure he can be as successful as he can be around the world.. Post 2007, I thought we will see a different Sehwag, a Sehwag who is willing to work out the best way to score runs quickly wherever he plays but alas, what a false dawn that proved to be!! :( His 2009 series in NZ still gets me angry. He could have made as much as he wanted if he was so willing. He just kept batting as if he was having nets..
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
He was player of the tournament in the U19 WC a long while back IIRC in the same team as Uthappa/Raina etc.... Was always in contention for India spots after that but has been a bit unlucky with clutch innings before selection which likes of Raina, Vijay, Uthappa posted.

Was a big fan since the u19 days, but his technique in FC had some flaws and still does. He struggles with ball coming into him with that shuffle, can be a compulsive puller and also has the knack of throwing away the wicket after getting set. He is a OK'ish batsman i would say, but has been given a debut in his prime pretty much so will be interesting how he carries on.
 
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Your mama

Cricket Spectator
I like this guy. He's knows he's good but he's not ****y at the same time. Quiet confidence. Kinda like amla.

One for the future. If he keeps working hard the sky's the limit.
 

MrPrez

International Debutant
Definitely agree about unorthodox strengths, will be interesting to see how he goes against a different bowling attack with different strategies.....very reminiscent of P Hughes's first knock in RSA i.e. deadly drives resulting in bowlers not knowing where to bowl to him. The challenge for him now will be to progress from this innings. Mendis, Hughes, Duminy and recently Du Plessis have shown that outstanding debuts don't necessarily translate into successful test careers.
I'd hardly include Du Plessis in that list.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
I just hope he is not a lazy **** like Sehwag and actually tries to build on his gifts and ensure he can be as successful as he can be around the world.. Post 2007, I thought we will see a different Sehwag, a Sehwag who is willing to work out the best way to score runs quickly wherever he plays but alas, what a false dawn that proved to be!! :( His 2009 series in NZ still gets me angry. He could have made as much as he wanted if he was so willing. He just kept batting as if he was having nets..
Watched Dhawan do some fielding drills during the Hyderabad test. Bloke looked like he did not want to be there, but sometimes that is just the natural body language for people. The fielding coach was maki him run around everywhere so it was obviously tiring, and he does seem like he's generally laconic.

I agree with you though, I too really hope he's not a lazy ****. My first thought was concern when I saw that drill. Can't just be a bloke who stands there and smacks the pill when the going is easy... need more from our openers without Dravid/Laxman and soon Sachin in the middle order.

That being said, on the actual match day Dhawan seems a pretty decent fielder.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Dhawan won't last, imo. But the best of luck to him. It'd be great if he is the new Sehwag, but I really doubt it.
 

Contra

Cricketer Of The Year
I hope people realize that Dhawan isn't a Sehwag replacement, he might have played an innings that we would normally expect from Sehwag (strike rate wise) but he's not someone who tries to strike at 100+ every single innings. I'm sure Dhawan surprised himself with how fast he ended up scoring in the end. He's not in the Sehwag mould.
 

MrPrez

International Debutant
Need to be patient when it comes to Du Piss since he has only just started. But he has been piss against a rubbish and inexperienced Pakistani Test attack on home soil.
After a crazy few first series, one failure of a series and he's in the list?

Righto.
 

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