Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
Earlier in the week, cricket expert Harsha Bhogle on Twitter questioned Shikhar Dhawan over his strike rate in the ongoing IPL 2023. Notably, the southpaw was taking some time to settle down before going hard against bowlers and that bothered Bhogle, as he expects the 37-year-old to play an aggressive brand of cricket like he is known for.
However, in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 9, Dhawan played innings, which will definitely be a part of IPL literature. Even though wickets were tumbling on the other end, the PBKS skipper didn’t lose his calm and smashed 99* runs off 66 deliveries to bail his team out of a difficult situation. He build a partnership of 55 runs along with the number 11 batter Mohit Rathee and helped Punjab put 143 on board after 20 overs.
Meanwhile, in the post-match presentation, Dhawan jokingly asked Bhogle, if the cricket expert was happy with his strike rate against SRH. Bhogle later took things to Twitter to clear the air and revealed that he had a ‘mature’ chat with Dhawan after the match, where the latter stated that he was having trouble hitting boundaries against RR and that is why, he had a poor strike rate initially.
“Had a lovely chat with Shikhar post game, always easy conversation with him, where he said he was trying to play shots the other day but struggled. And that the form of Prabhsimran and his own calmness and experience allowed him to ride over the situation. We have mature chats.
“Sometimes, only sometimes, the end overcomes the beginning. It doesn’t justify the beginning. But you know, everyone has some days where everything goes right and others where you struggle and overcome. Our job is to observe, it is never personal. That is where you build respect,” Bhogle tweeted.
Meanwhile, in the match, PBKS suffered their first defeat of the season as they eventually lost by eight wickets. Batting at number three, Rahul Tripathi was in brilliant form and smashed 74* runs off 48 deliveries but Shikhar was eventually adjudged as Player of the Match because of his mature knock.
Read IPL Schedule here