Dambulla,
\nShikhar Dhawan may have hit a purple patch but the opener has not forgotten the slump which had forced him out of the team. Dhawan was dropped after the New Zealand series last year and made a comeback for the Champions Trophy this year. Ever since, he has done exceedingly well and hopes to continue in the same vein for as long as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to keep performing because if I don\u2019t, there are many batsmen in our side who can take my place,\u201d Dhawan said after helping India to a thumping nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka on Sunday. \u201cFailure teaches you a lot, and I am lucky I have learnt so much out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talking about the slump in form that saw him dropped, Dhawan, who hit a fluent unbeaten 132 on Sunday, said, \u201cWhen I was not doing well, I was just focussing on my processes. And when I am doing well, I am still focussing on my processes. So those things don\u2019t bother me that much,\u201d said Dhawan. \u201cI have already had a slump, so I don\u2019t think about it. When it has to come, it will come. I will embrace that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Focus on fitness
\nThe left-hander said he needed to keep his fitness level high to be at par with \u201cthe young boys\u201d in the team. \u201cI like to keep myself fit. Apart from that, I don\u2019t really set goals like I\u2019ve to score these many runs. I just focus on my fitness, skills and fielding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lanka not bad team
\nAfter being ruthless with the willow, he chose to be far more sympathetic with his words. \u201cThis is a young Sri Lankan side, they are going through a transition and will mature. The young boys are good, they will get better with time,\u201d he said. Asked if the Lankan attack, led by the ageing Lasith Malinga, was the poorest he has faced, the opener refused to belittle the Lankan attack. \u201cMalinga has been a legend for Sri Lankan cricket and he has done great in international cricket. He is a bit old now and with time his pace has gone down a bit. But this is natural because he has played so much cricket, it\u2019s just a cycle, a life cycle,\u201d said the left-handed opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t use those harsh words. I won\u2019t say they are the worst bowling attack I have ever faced. The left-arm bowler (Vishwa Fernando) bowls a decent pace. They have a good pace attack,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
84.11 Average at which Dhawan has scored his 757 runs from 10 matches against Sri Lanka. It\u2019s the highest by any batsman from either side, with a minimum of ten matches<\/p>\n
8 Dhawan has posted eight centuries away from home out of a total of eleven ODI hundreds<\/p>\n
6 In the last six ODI innings against Sri Lanka, Dhawan has posted six 50-plus scores \u2014 the sequence being 94, 113, 79, 91, 125 & 132 not out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dambulla, Shikhar Dhawan may have hit a purple patch but the opener has not forgotten the slump which had forced him out of the team. Dhawan was dropped after the New Zealand series last year and made a comeback for the Champions Trophy this year. Ever since, he has done exceedingly well and hopes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions\/2739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}