Is This The End Of A Legendary Partnership Between Rohit And Dhawan?

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan is one of the most successful opening pairs for India in the limited-overs format.

Considering only the T20 Format, the pair has been by far the best for India, having added 1743 runs for the first wicket. The two have partnered in 52 innings with each other and have made four hundred plus partnerships, the highest being 160. 

The duo has maintained a run-rate of 8.28 across the 52 innings, which is quite decent if not the best. Among 18 opening pairs that have added more than 500 runs together, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan come at the 15th spot in terms of scoring rate - 8.28 in 52 innings. However, the duo tops the list in terms of runs scored as opening partners. 

In the last two years, Rohit and Dhawan are in the middle of the list of the scoring rate - 8.78 in 7 innings. 

The focus is majorly on run rate due to the requirements of the T20 format, which is to accelerate from the start and the best chance of doing this is for the openers due to the powerplay restrictions. 

 

India's next best opening pair is KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who has opened with each other in 11 innings and scored 558 runs at a rate of 9.96 - second-best among pairs having more than 500 runs. In the last two years, these two have made 302 runs in 6 innings at the rate of 10.12 rpo - which is the third-best. 

Indian team management has finally realized the importance of aggressive batting in the T20 format and has urged their players to change the batting philosophy. They have added power-hitters like Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya to the job. 

This is where Shikhar Dhawan might need to change the way he bats in this format. The left-hander has scored 363 runs in 14 innings in the last two years at a very poor strike rate of 117.47.

Considering the change in the "batting philosophy" of India, Ishan Kishan, another left-handed opener, will knock the door for the opening slot in the upcoming World Cup squad. He is the perfect replacement of Dhawan in all aspects - a lefty opener, aggressive, and a reliable wicket-keeping option. 

The current series will more or less decide the fate of Shikhar Dhawan's career as a T20 opener. While Rohit Sharma had always been the aggressor between the two during their partnerships, maybe Dhawan has been left too far behind.