Debasis Sen, Pallekele: Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan on Saturday described his approach towards batting in one line. According to Dhawan, ‘If you bat like a king, you should also get out like a king and not like a soldier.’ The opener who blazed his way to his second ton (119 off 123 balls) in the series (scored a ton in the first test at Galle) here at the Pallekele International Stadium defended his style of play.
On being asked about his approach while batting, Dhawan said, “If you have made runs aggressively, then you will get out that way too. That’s how it is. I know I am an aggressive batsman, so I would rather get out that way than getting out in the slips and being defensive because that is not my natural game.”
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The Delhi opener did have some tough times with runs drying away from his bat. He was even dropped from the team. But instead of shying away he worked hard on his batting to come good in the domestic season.
An attacking batsman like he is, Dhawan was forced to curb his aggressive approach.
“When I was having failures, that time I had a different kind of approach. I was more on the defensive mode but now I try to go and express myself out there and play my natural game. So that works for me. I try to back myself as much as possible,” said Dhawan at the end of days play.
He celebrated his sixth ton in test cricket in a unique style. Talking about his celebration, Dhawan said, “It was a fun thing with the boys. That’s it. We made a sign. It has got nothing to do with the second century or anything. They (teammates) gave me a new name and I was just celebrating that, that’s it. I can’t disclose the name, not everything my friend.”
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The hosts did come back strongly in the final session with some consistent bowling led by chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan.
“The Chinaman bowler is very nice. He was turning the ball; one odd ball was turning a lot. It’s hard to pick his googly also. Especially once we got out, the way he came back and bowled, it was nice for them,” says Dhawan.
Lastly, talking about the situation the Indian team find themselves in, Dhawan feel, “We got a good start and still feel at the end of the day, 329 is a good score. Those are batting now are capable of scoring big runs and it’s a wicket where it is not spinning but it doesn’t have bounce, so it’s not easy to score runs out there and even outfield is not that quick. When Sri Lanka come out to bat, we are going to make sure that we squeeze them hard and not give away easy runs.”