“Always believed that Shikhar Dhawan should play at least 70-80 Test matches in his career” – Childhood coach Madan Sharma

Shikhar Dhawan’s childhood coach Madan Sharma believed his pupil should have played at least 70-80 Test matches for India. Dhawan played 34 Test matches in his career, scoring 2315 runs at an average of 40.61. The left-hander made a fantastic start to his Test career as he scored a magnum opus knock of 187 runs against Australia on debut at the IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali.

The southpaw scored seven centuries in his Test career. The veteran batter scored 1403 in 16 Test matches at an impressive average of 61 while playing in Asia but his numbers outside the sub-continent were not that great.

Dhawan scored 1605 runs in 23 Test matches at an average of 39.14 while playing away from home conditions.

“I always believed that Shikhar should play at least 70-80 Test matches in his career. He had so much potential in his batting,” Sharma asserted in an interview with rediff.com. “And even in white ball cricket I wanted him to play more than 200 ODIs matches. But maybe in between injuries did hamper his career at times.”

Dhawan had scored a fine century against Australia in the 2019 World Cup but he was ruled out with a hairline thumb fracture.

“In the 2019 World Cup, he was ruled out with injury after playing two games. He was in good form then and had scored a century against Australia which India won but the injury came at the wrong time.”

Madan added that continuous injuries hampered Dhawan’s progress when he was in good form.

“I remember he hit a century in a Test against Sri Lanka in Galle but again he got injured and missed the last two Tests when in form. So injuries have definitely played a part somewhere else his record in all the countries is good except maybe England (in 2018). In that series except Virat Kohli no other Indian batter did well,” Sharma recalled.

Meanwhile, Dhawan had an average of 27.83, 20.28, and 18 while playing in tough conditions of Australia, England, and South Africa respectively.