Shikhar Dhawan has been in extraordinary form for India of late, and even though the talented left-hander is nearing the fag end of his career, he has found a way of providing his team with a lot of impetus. Dhawan scored yet another fifty in the first ODI against Zimbabwe, his third in four games if the 3 ODIs against West Indies are included.
Such form makes Dhawan undroppable, even though the southpaw has reached the age of 36. Former Indian batsman Ajay Jadeja meanwhile feels that Dhawan has a striking similarity to Sachin Tendulkar, who also 'reinvented' himself when facing competition from youngsters such as Yuvraj Singh, and MS Dhoni among others.
Speaking during the post-match show Jadeja revealed how the young generations tend to push the veterans often, citing the example of Dhawan and Shubman Gill.
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"There will always be a period where you are re-energised and you've got to change your game because the next generation is always quicker, faster, smarter. And they always push you. A good example is going back to Sachin Tendulkar. Think of him when Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and all these guys came in. He did exactly the same thing in his career. He had to reinvent himself, changed the pace at which he was playing the game to keep up with the younger lot," said Jadeja.
He continued, "You've got to catch up. Sometimes as a senior player you tend to take it easy, you've been around for so long... You stagnate at a certain place. But when that next generation comes, it starts pushing you. The first time was when Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly came in and the next change was when Yuvraj, Sehwag and Dhoni came in. And you can see the same with Shikhar."
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Dhawan and Gill continued their red-hot form against Zimbabwe as well as they chased down the required total of 190 runs with 20 overs to spare.
They both scored 80-odd runs and put together a 192-run stand for the opening partnership. The attention now switches to the second ODI as India look to wrap up the series on Saturday, August 20.
