‘Vadapav se behetar khel raha hai’ – Fans react as Shikhar Dhawan’s magical form with bat conitinues in Indian T20 League

In the second fixture of the 16th edition of the Indian T20 League (ITL), the Punjab franchise locked horns against the Kolkata side on Saturday, April 1, at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. For the 2023 edition, the Punjab management has appointed star India opener, Shikhar Dhawan as the franchise skipper. He is considered one of the consistent performers in the cash-rich league.

If we talk about the fixture, the newly appointed Kolkata franchise skipper, Nitish Rana won the toss and elected to bowl first. The hosts while batting first scored 191 runs with the loss of five wickets in the first innings. The highest run-getter for them was Sri Lankan batter, Bhanuka Rajapaksha who scored 50 runs off 32 balls with five fours and two sixes. Dhawan also scored a crucial knock in which he scored 40 runs from 29 balls which included six fours.

Shikhar Dhawan – King of Indian T20 League

In the Indian T20 League’s history, Dhawan is regarded as one of the greatest players. In the last few years, he has smashed a lot of runs in ITL. From 2008-2011, he batted in 42 innings in which he scored 971 runs at an average of over 27 and at a strike rate of 118 runs with eight fifties. From 2012 to 2015, he batted in 53 innings, in which he scored 1610 runs at an average of over 33 and at a strike rate of 124 which included 13 fifties.

From 2016-2019, he batted in 63 innings, where he scored 1998 runs at an average of 37 and at a strike rate of 129 with 16 fifties. And from since 2020, he has batted in 47 innings in which he has scored 1665 runs at an average of 40 with a strike rate of 131 with 10 fifties an two hundreds. Sharukh Khan 20-20 World Cup player of the Tournament, Sam Curran also played quickfire knocks for their side.

For the visitors the pick of the bowler was New Zealand’s Test skipper Tim Southee who snapped two wickets and conceded 54 runs in his spell of four overs. One-one wicket each was grabbed by Umesh Yadav, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy and they gave away 27 runs, 40 runs and 26 runs in their spell of four overs.

Here’s how fans reacted on Shikhar Dhawan’s stats:

Clear of pubeman pill

— aarnav13 (@aarnav_13) April 1, 2023

Better then chokli

— . (@roemotion4545) April 1, 2023

He is the classic BATSMAN of IPL

— Kings 2 (@Fanbasecrictext) April 1, 2023

Gabbar, he got better with the age

— Latest Cricket News (@LatestCric_News) April 1, 2023

He is best in anchoring the inning.

— ViratKohliFan (@ArunSharma56) April 1, 2023

I think we'll can agree he has done far better than rofat besharma in IPL.

— Chiku (@Kohliisgoat) April 1, 2023

what consistent
He is respected KL rahul in IPL

Run banane hai bolo ise
tuk tuk karra hai

I hope kkr thrash pbks big time for this pathetic innings by shikhar

— Cricket Girl (@wowowowow989) April 1, 2023

Better than vadapav

— SSMB (@_Coverdrive_18) April 1, 2023