The southpaw who injured his left shoulder in the 3rd ODI against Australia has been ruled out of the New Zealand T20I series.
Injuries haunting Dhawan
India were hugely affected in the world cup when the dynamic opener Shikhar Dhawan got injured halfway through the world cup after his match-winning knock of 117 against Australia. Dhawan’s injury forced India to change their already messed up batting order in the world cup which affected the dynamics of the team. He came back to play the West Indies series and again faced a set back as he hurt his knee and was left out. Now the latest is the shoulder injury which left him clueless about his future.
Shikhar Dhawan who is 34 years of age, is in the peak phase of his career and he should play as much matches as possible. With the next 50 over world cup in mind and his already controversial place in the T20 set up, it will be difficult for Dhawan to make his case if he gets affected by injuries like these in regular intervals.
Possible replacement options
With the T20I series starting in 3 days time, all the cricket fans are eagerly waiting for the announcement for the official replacement for Dhawan. The possible replacement options will be Sanju Samson who was dropped from the squad after just 1 match against Sri Lanka. The selectors might also look at the dashing Prithvi Shaw who scored a scintillating 150 runs from 100 balls in the 2nd warm game between India A and New Zealand XI.
Fans took to Twitter to express their views about Dhawan’s replacement
Meanwhile, the seriousness of Dhawan’s Injury is yet to be known, it is almost certain that Dhawan will miss the ODI series as well which is slated to begin on February 5th.
India will kick start their series with 1st T20I starting on Friday.