If you keep failing, then at some point you must either decide to give up or get better. Such points tend to come up more often in the life of a sportsman than you could imagine. It could be an injury, a loss of form, lack of motivation, a bad skipper, a condescending coach – it could be anything… but all of it has the potential to derail the focus of a professional sportsman.
So sometimes, even though you are playing for your country, you ask yourself whether it is truly worth it – is it worth doing the hard yards every morning; is it worth spending time away from family; it is worth obsessing over an inch or two. Many would say that it is an easy choice to make but the pressure of collective failures in the public eye; the ridicule; the criticism… can make it a pretty tough decision.
We have seen enough Indian players simply fade away (case in point Munaf Patel, RP Singh and others) to realise that sometimes the height of their imagination is simply to represent India. That in itself is enough. Thankfully for Shikhar Dhawan it isn’t.
The left-hander stroked his way to a classic 137 off 146 deliveries including 16 fours and two sixes against South Africa and propelled India to a 130-run win, their biggest victory outside the subcontinent.
India's Shikhar Dhawan celebrates scoring his century. AFP
In the first game against Pakistan, he had made a measured 73 off 76 as India had won handsomely again. In both instances, India lost Rohit Sharma early but Dhawan and Virat Kohli stepped up to fill the breach.
And in both instance, it wasn’t the daredevilry of his strokeplay that impressed. Rather, it was his calm.
Over his career, he has built up a strike-rate of 90.00. Rohit Sharma by comparison has a SR of 81. Basically put, Dhawan likes to go for his shots at almost all times. But against Pakistan, he was never scoring at a run-a-ball, he never looked at it that way. He was looking to simply stay put in the middle and build a partnership.
Against South Africa; against an attack of infinitely better quality – he did more of the same. If anything, he was even more circumspect.
The first 20 runs took 29 balls, the next 20 took another 28 balls.
40 runs off 57 balls. It wasn’t lightning quick, not even close. It was steady, calm stuff – that allowed everyone in the dressing room to settle down.
The 60th run came off 82 balls. The only thing on his mind – as he later revealed -- was building a partnership.
Then something clicked. He went from 60 to 80 in the blink of an eye. 80 runs off 90 balls. The old Dhawan was surfacing again.
With Dhawan on 86, Kohli fell to Imran Tahir but the left-hander didn’t panic. He kept his wits about him and batted on. Ajinkya Rahane helped by playing a blinder at the other end but the opener kept his part of the bargain.
The 100 came off 122 balls. It was a superbly crafted innings. Once again, not super quick but when you have big hitters down the order, you need to keep wickets in hand till the end. Dhawan seems to have understood this simple logic.
120 came off 133 balls. By this point, Dhawan was starting to chance his arm a lot more. A six – hit flat over mid-on – and a four – upper cut over the keeper – off successive balls from Dale Steyn was the icing on the cake and also took him to his highest ODI score.
Some more mayhem was to follow before Dhawan was finally dismissed on 137 – the highest score by any batsman against South Africa in the World Cups. The wagon wheel makes interesting reading as well - 76 runs on the on-side, 61 runs on the off-side. He was in trouble against the short ball a bit early in the innings but then picked the balls that he wanted to pull well.
“I wanted to play each ball on it’s merit. I knew that the SA attack was good,” said Dhawan after the game. “Shuru main aaram se khelna na. Baad main run aayenge. Loose delivery pe cash in kiya. (I just wanted to bide my time. I knew I can score quickly later. Then I just cashed it on the loose deliveries).”
But the change hasn’t just come about. Dhawan has spent a lot of time in the nets. He has spent a lot of time thinking about his game and made subtle changes to his technique as well.
“Thoda technically change kiya. Ab bounce ke upar acche se aa raha hoon (I have changed my technique a bit. Now I am on top of the bounce properly),” he said. “Batting tab bhi acchi ho rahi thi. Ball lag raha tha. Experience yehi hota hai. Jab nahi chalta toh aap sochte hai, apni game ke baare main (I was batting well earlier also, hitting the ball in the sweet spot but this is also an experience. It is only when you do badly that you think about your game.)”
The thought was crucial to India’s chances because early wickets put a lot on the middle order and that almost always is bad news for the middle order.
“We executed our plans today and that hasn’t just happened. We put in a lot of effort in our preparations. And the 2-3 months spent here have also helped – we are not used to the conditions and the bounce,” added Dhawan.
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Team director Ravi Shastri was even more gung-ho after the game and said that anyone who had called for Dhawan to be dropped didn’t know his cricket.
“All those who called for Dhawan to be dropped, they don’t know their cricket,” said Shastri. “He had no luck in the Test series. Always there -- 25-30... then one mistake and gone. Australia always kept the pressure on with some very high quality bowling. But now he has got his act together. If he gets going, he converts that into a big score.”
And that big score is vital. In Dhoni’s eyes, it was his resolve to stay at the wicket even after he got his century that deserved big plaudits.
“He spent a lot of time in the nets. And he found something. He made sure he was there even after the century. He tried to stay till the end. In these conditions, important to bat for as long as possible,” said Dhoni. “A lot of openers start playing their big shots after the 25th over but it was nice to see Shikhar not do that.”
Indeed, it was nice to see Dhawan back at his best as well. It sure makes cricket seem like a simple game.
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