Considered as favoruites to lift the ICC World T20, India’s swashbuckling opener Shikhar Dhawan said that high burden of expectations won’t add any extra pressure on the team as they get set for the tournament opener against New Zealand in Nagpur. Dhawan said the team is well accustomed to dealing with high expectations of the home crowd. A glimpse of what to expect ahead was witnessed at the Wankhede Stadium, which was filled to capacity for India’s second warm-up game against South Africa on Saturday evening.
“We stay close as a family. We'll try to share the burden of expectation as a group and not individuals. We are playing at home and expectations of home crowds will always be there. We are also used to that,” said Dhawan after the match.
India almost overhauled South Africa’s daunting total of 197 runs, but fell agonizingly short by four runs. Needing 60 from five overs, India brought the total down to 14 from six balls. Captain MS Dhoni was at the strike on the final two balls when India needed two big hits with 10 to get from two balls. Dhoni smashed the ball to mid-wicket boundary and collected a four. With six to get off the final ball, fast bowler Chris Morris showed signs of nervousness and bowled a wide outside off, giving India another chance. Dhoni once again swung his bat, but this time it hit the toe end of the bat and resulted in the ball going to the deep square leg fielder.
Dhawan, who had laid the platform for a big chase with his sparkling 73 off 53 balls and shared an important 89-run stand with Suresh Raina (41 from 26), said the knock helped him understand his game better. “As an individual, it was a good learning for me as I batted till the 15th-16th over, so with my calculation for the next coming games, I will be better. It was a good learning for me and I got wiser.”
With no dip in intensity, the warm-up tie was no less than an actual match with both teams giving their best. Dhawan said there were plenty of positives from the game in which Ashish Nehra and R. Ashwin did not bowl yet India came so close to overhauling the target.
“Certainly, these are normal things. It does not happen that the best finishers will always guarantee you to complete the task. Everyone gave their best and that's what matters. We were chasing such a big total, and wickets fell early on, after that there was a good partnership and came so close. It was only a matter of two runs. We learnt a lot from this game. What we have learnt today, will be implemented in the future.”
He added that the team wanted to try out certain bowling combinations ahead of the Super 10 games. “We guys were trying combinations, like Bhajji pa (Harbhajan Singh) bowled the first over. I guess that's how we are trying and it's good everyone is getting a game and getting used to the pressure, the wickets,” he added.
