Shikhar Dhawan scored only his third double-digit score in eight innings © BCCI
Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Shikhar Dhawan has said that he did not put too much pressure on himself during his recent lean patch. He made three single-digit scores this IPL before scoring an unbeaten half-century in Sunrisers’ ten-wicket win over Gujarat Lions on Thursday. In the World T20 last month, he had managed only 43 runs in four innings before he was replaced by Ajinkya Rahane in the semi-final against West Indies.
“I don’t pressurise myself, don’t stress myself too much if I’m not scoring runs, Dhawan told iplt20.com. “Whatever I can do as a human – drill-wise, fitness-wise, I’m doing everything. During the periods I am not scoring I learn a lot and I try and better myself. It is a new challenge and I have fun when the pressure increases. I take it positively, I never find failures bad.
“It’s not that I’ve not been scoring runs for ages, it’s just been for four-five matches and it can happen to anyone. I just kept the process going, kept faith in myself and I knew in one innings things will turn, so I’m happy the way I finished the game [today].”
Dhawan also credited David Warner, his captain and opening partner, for taking the pressure off him. Warner took the lead in their 137-run match-winning partnership with an unbeaten 74 – his third fifty in four matches – while Dhawan supported with 53 not out.
“Batting with Warner takes pressure off me, he’s in such good form,” Dhawan said. “He gave us such a good start – when the team score was 50, he had scored about 30-35 of those runs and the rest were mine. So it is helpful, I am thankful that he is leading from the front and batting amazingly. Because of him I got time to settle in today.”
When asked about the trend of teams preferring to chase this season – 14 of the 15 IPL matches so far have been won by the team batting second – Dhawan said that chasing helps teams plan their innings, but the choice varies from team to team.
“While chasing we know what score we need and set our games accordingly,” he said. “[Chasing and batting first] have their merits. There are teams that want to bat first, put up a big total and put pressure on the other team. But our bowlers bowled well and contained the opposition, so that helps.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo