Shikhar Dhawan gives first reaction after being dropped from ODI team, deletes post later

Shikhar Dhawan has been one of India's premier batsmen in limited-overs cricket in the last decade. The left-hander has performed impeccably in Indian colours since 2012 while forming a deadly opening combination with India skipper Rohit Sharma. Dhawan has scored 6793 runs in 164 innings at an impressive average of 44.11 with 17 hundred and 39 fifties. In the absence of regular skipper Rohit in the 50-over format, Shikhar has even led India to victory in several ODI and T20I series in the past year. He has been an ever-reliable servant of Indian cricket since his debut.

However, things haven't been rosy for the 37-year-old batsman in the last few months. After being a constant presence in the ODI team for the past 10 years, Shikhar was dropped from the squad for the series against Sri Lanka. Shikhar hasn't looked at his best in recent series vs New Zealand and Bangladesh and it has proved detrimental for him. It looks like India is heading in a  direction in the 50-over format without Shikhar with the ODI World Cup looming. 

Shikhar Dhawan reacted for the first time after the squad for the Sri Lanka series was announced. Dhawan posted a video of himself doing batting practice with an emotional caption in Punjabi. 

“It is not about winning or losing, it is all about your guts. Keep working hard and leave the rest in the hands of God,” Dhawan had written in the caption in Punjabi. However, Dhawan deleted the post later. 

Dhawan has been prolific for India in the ODI format since 2020. He has scored 1275 runs in 33 innings at an average of 42.6 average. Shikhar has scored the most number of runs for India since 2020 in ODIs and has the 2nd best average in ODIs (min 1000 runs). 

Team India squad for the Sri Lanka series

India's squad for Sri Lanka T20Is: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ishan Kishan (WK), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.

ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.