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“It wasn’t a question of form, I was batting well but wasn’t getting runs. Great to get runs also,” the opener said after notching up his 14th ODI hundred. Dhawan did not get a single half century in his last eight innings, during the Test series against England. His recent ODI form was also all about good starts which he failed to convert into big knocks.
The win over Hong Kong was a rather hard-fought win for one of the tournament favourites and once again questions were raised about the Indian middle-order’s frailties, which were thoroughly exposed in the recent tour of England as well.
Dhawan defended his teammates. “We have won so many series in the last four years and we have also lost some. We are humans. The concern should not be such that everything else, all the good results are forgotten,” he said.
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“We didn’t expect for them to score 170-run partnership but they played well. We could have been more consistent in our bowling but we have to give credit to their batsmen, the openers played well. They were calculative, have to appreciate that,” he said.
“There wasn’t much swing or seam in the wicket and our bowlers were coming after a break. It takes time to get into the rhythm as well. Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) was coming back after a break and Shardul (Thakur) hadn’t played much in England,” he reasoned.
On whether the possibility of an embarrassing loss ever struck the team management on Tuesday, Dhawan said that was never the case. “…we knew that once we get the top-order, we can come back into the game. They gave a decent fight. It’s always good to learn from every match,” he said.