Once I am in, I can demolish any side, says Shikhar Dhawan

Contrary to expectations, Sri Lanka showed in the Dharamsala ODI that they could be lethal too. They won the game by seven wickets, having dominated India in every aspect. Hence, despite India’s solid comeback in Mohali, Dhawan sounded conscious about Sri Lanka’s ability to come back in the third game in Vizag.

However, India seem to have found a solution to their early batting collapse. The Indian openers showed patience and precaution before opening their hands in Mohali. India were only 30/0 in the 10th over of before Rohit and Dhawan accelerated the run flow with India finally ending at 392.

Dhawan scored a solid 68 in the game and believes that once he is settled, Sri Lanka’s comeback plans, or any side in world cricket, wouldn’t matter.

“See of course, when you attack the opposition and the players we are, the calibre we have got once we are in. Once I am in, I can demolish any side because that is my strength. And even Rohit, once he gets settled, he scores big… We are a strong side and we believe in our ability and our skill, we are going to go out and play it like any other game…”

“Of course any opposition can have plans when they lose, they will learn out of it and will come out with a better mindset, we know about it, we will be aware of it because we know they will come out with strong plans for us,” said Dhawan.

Though Dhawan got out cheaply in Mohali, his partner went on till the end to reach his third double ton in ODI, and the southpaw believes that Rohit is one of the best openers he was played with so far.

“He has only been captain for two matches but I’ve known Rohit from a long time and I know what his character is like. He is a very chilled out captain and tells us to keep the basics right, we all know our roles, we just have to give our best and hats off to him for the way he performed in the last game… Rohit and I have played for a long time. He is one of the best opening batsmen I have played with,” said Dhawan.