Even though the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been split after the latter’s exclusion from the India team, the duo remain good friends and share a strong bond with each other.
Shikhar Dhawan last played for India in December 2022 before being dropped for youngsters Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan. During his time as India’s ODI opener, Dhawan formed a great opening partnership records with Rohit Sharma.
Dhawan and Rohit formed the 4th most successful opening ODI partnership of all-time amassing 5148 runs at an average of 45 with 18 century partnerships. The left-hander’s India career seems ended now with 6793 ODI runs, 2315 Test runs, and 1759 T20I runs; overall, he cracked 24 international centuries.
Rohit Sharma, who is currently in Guwahati for the World Cup warm-up matches, spoke with journalist Vimal Kumar on his bond with Dhawan.
“I am a big fan of Shikhar Dhawan, we share a very good bond, played together from U-17 to U-19 to India and opened for a long time. He is very relaxed, fun & chill guy,” Rohit told Vimal Kumar on the latter’s YouTube channel.
Rohit Sharma scored lots of runs in ICC tournaments: Dhawan
A few weeks ago, Shikhar Dhawan lavished rich praise on his former opening partner and friend Rohit Sharma. The southpaw backed Rohit to play a big role in the upcoming World Cup 2023.
“Rohit Sharma is a very experienced customer. He has scored lots of runs in ICC tournaments and bilateral series and he’s a proven player on the big stage,” Dhawan had said.
Rohit was the leading run-scorer in the 2019 World Cup, where he hit a record 5 centuries, however, couldn’t do much in the semi-final loss to New Zealand.
India will play two World Cup 2023 warm-up matches: vs England on September 30 in Guwahati and vs Netherlands on October 3 in Thiruvananthapuram.
India World Cup 2023 squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
