When he made his Test debut at Mohali very few expected that Shikhar Dhawan would make such a great start to his career in the longest form of cricket. After smashing a magnificent 150 plus in his debut Test, Dhawan also scooped up the Man of the match award. However, the lad from Delhi is set to miss the next Test due to injury.
Dhawan jammed his left hand into the ground while fielding in Mohali and fractured his hand as a result. In Mohali, in India’s first innings, the opening batsman smashed his way into record books after he scored the fastest-ever Test century on debut.
The Delhi batsman scored a powerful 187 in the first innings, and reached the three-figure mark off just 85 balls as he surpassed the previous record held by Dwayne Smith from West Indies.
Judging from the shots played by Dhawan during his century knock, it was clear he was in the pink of form and played fearless strokes, a great achievement for a man on debut. If he could have played the Delhi Test surely with the form that he displayed on debut and the support of his home crowd he would have played well.
The injury seems to have come at the wrong time for the 27-year-old Delhi batsman, who justified the selectors choice and faith in him when he played that great knock after having had replaced Virender Sehwag. Being unable to play in Delhi, in a way deprives Dhawan of the opportunity to prove to sceptics that his century at Mohali was not a flash in the pan and that he is a consistent player, who is here to stay.
Making it to the records books though has insured that Shikhar Dhawan will not be forgotten and once he recovers from his injury he will most definitely get another shot as the Indian selectors have made it clear that they are looking beyond Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
Home fans may miss out on seeing the boy from their backyard play in the Delhi Test against Australia this time around. But having passed the real test and with a century and record as proof, we can all look forward to seeing Shikhar Dhawan in the Indian Test team again sooner rather than later.
The fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that sees India and Australia face-off starts on Friday, March 22, 2013 at 9:30 am local time.
