Saurav Ganguly wants Dhawan to scrap this shot to improve his game

Shikhar Dhawan is an interesting player. He scores heavily in the shorter format of the game and fails too often in the Tests. But he scores the big hundreds every now and then to stay in the squad but his inconsistency ensures he is always in and out of the playing eleven.

What exactly is wrong with Dhawan? According to former Indian captain Saurav Ganguly, Dhawan’s inability to control his shots makes him vulnerable in the Tests. Hence, Ganguly believes the Indian opener needs to show some patience to excel in Tests.

In his column for a newspaper, Ganguly said that Dhawan needs to scrap the big cover drive that he plays too often in every format of the game. Ganguly insisted Dhawan to show some grit and play other strokes which he is capable of. Instead of playing cover drives  Ganguly wants Dhawan to play more on the back-foot.

Being a left-hand batsman, Ganguly knows the challenges batsmen face in England. He also has plenty of experience of playing here. Infact he made his Test debut in England and scored a famous hundred in his debut innings.

Currently, the lack of runs from openers is a big concern for team India. The three openers KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Dhawan have failed to deliver significant contributions. Dhawan especially hasn’t been able to convert his starts into big scores. Incidentally, Dhawan got out in both innings in the first Test while playing a drive on the off-side.

Ganguly was also positive about India’s chances in this ongoing Test series. He accepted that coming back from a situation of 2-0 will be difficult but he thinks it is not impossible. He gave the example of the South Africa series in which India won the third game after losing the first two Tests.