Shikhar Dhawan is a terrific one-day player, says Sourav Ganguly

What's the story?

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly was full of praise for Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan after his majestic performance with the bat against Sri Lanka in the 1st ODI. While speaking to India Today, Ganguly hailed Dhawan as a terrific one-day player.

“He’s (Shikhar Dhawan) is a terrific one-day player. His form in one-day cricket has been terrific for the past five-six years. Whether you go to Australia, England and now in Sri Lanka. He enjoys batting in this format, he has got tremendous faith in his abilities,” the former skipper said.

“He knows how to pace the innings and it was another exponent of a typical Shikhar Dhawan type of an innings. It was great to watch. The attack maybe mediocre but you still got to get runs on the board, still have to get runs to get a 100 and I think he has done exceptionally well,” Ganguly added.

In case you didn't know...

Dhawan carried on from where he left off in the Test series and continued his fine run of form with the bat scoring a breathtaking century in the first ODI at Dambulla.

His knock of 132 in just 90 deliveries helped India chase down the total of 220 set by the home side with more than twenty overs to spare.

He put on a 197 run partnership with skipper Virat Kohli for the 2nd wicket after Rohit Sharma was dismissed in bizarre fashion.

He was adjudged the man of the match for his performance.

The details:

Dhawan had an amazing Test series after making a comeback to the side after a long hiatus. He lit up the Tests with 358 runs to his name which consisted of two centuries.

Ganguly went on to say that his Test centuries will be more special than his one-day hundreds because his Test performances haven’t been best for the last couple of years.

What's next?

Dhawan will look to continue his good run of form for the upcoming ODIs as well. The 2nd ODI will take place on 24th August at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Balagolla.

Author's take:

Ever since the ICC Champions Trophy, Dhawan has been in spectacular form and is currently scoring centuries for fun.

With KL Rahul back in the side, there was a lot of doubts about who would open the innings. However, with Yuvraj Sindh being dropped from the side and with Dhawan opening the innings and Rahul at no. 4, it looks like India have found the perfect batting combination for the next few years.