Shikhar Dhawan surpassed the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith while matching Brian Lara to become the joint-fastest left-handed batsman.
Shikhar Dhawan was second fastest Indian to 4000 ODI runs and is now second fastest to 5000 ODI runs as well. (Source: AP)
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!India’s opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan became the second fastest Indian to 5000 ODI runs in the first ODI between India and New Zealand at McLean Park in Napier. He also became the fifth fastest overall while joining legendary left-hander Brian Lara in the list. Dhawan surpassed the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Smith while matching Lara to become the joint-fastest left-handed batsman.
Dhawan achieved the feat in his 118th inning while batting in the sixth over of India’s 158-run chase against New Zealand in the first of the ongoing five-match ODI series. South Africa’s Hashim Amla tops the charts with 101 innings to the milestone. West Indies great Vivian Richards achieved the feat in 114 innings while India captain Virat Kohli needed as many innings to get there.
Windies great Lara had also needed 118 innings to achieve the milestone. New Zealand’s Kane Williamson is sixth on the list (119 innings), Windies’ Gordon Greenidge seventh (121 innings), South Africa’s AB de Villiers eighth (124 innings) and India’s Sourav Ganguly ninth (126 innings) with the top-10 rounded off by Australia’s Dean Jones who took 128 innings.
Earlier, Dhawan had become the second fastest Indian, behind Kohli, and sixth quickest overall to reach 4000 ODI runs during an ODI series at home against Sri Lanka in 2017. Dhawan had brought up 4000 runs in the 94th innings of his ODI career.
In the recent outings, Dhawan hasn’t gone past the 50-run mark in his last nine innings and is certainly hoping to change that streak in the ongoing series. The likes of Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant are waiting in the wings but with the World Cup on the horizon, a change this late in preparation will be a drastic change.
Dhawan has been struggling for form in the recent past with the left-hander managing only 55 runs in three ODIs against Australia. He was dropped for India’s historic 2-1 Test series win in Australia.
