Shikhar Dhawan has been away from the Indian T20 team for a long time. He recently featured in ODIs against West Indies at home but could not find a place in the squad for the shortest format as India played 6 matches last month.
With the T20 World Cup due later this year, Dhawan is expected to fly to Australia. He believes that if he does well in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), he can make it to the last 15 for the mega ICC event.
Talking to Time of India, Dhawan said that he is confident of doing well for his new franchise Punjab Kings in IPL 2022.
“The T20 World Cup is coming. I know if I do well in IPL, I can come into the team. I am a very process-driven person. I don’t set goals. As long as I’m enjoying my game – and when I say enjoying my game, I mean it from a fitness, sports and mindset perspective – if I’m enjoying on all these fronts, then It works best for me. And I’m in that space right now. So, I am making sure that my process is very strong, and I get all that I need,” Dhawan was quoted as saying.
The 36-year-old said that even if he is not picked for the T20 World Cup, he will not let that affect his current state of mind.
He said, ‘I am confident of doing well in the IPL. And if I do that, I will have a chance to make it to the World Cup squad. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t – only time will tell. But I will not allow that to affect my state of mind,” he said.
Dhawan further explained the changes made in his thought process. He said that he used to ‘compete aggressively’ in the past but now, he has stopped chasing and started taking shocks in a positive way.
“At the moment I am not in T20 or Test team, but playing in IPL is a good opportunity. I am earning good money. I have seen ups and downs while playing for the Indian team in the last ten years. There were times when I was about to be dropped from the team, I would get frustrated. I used to compete aggressively. But as I grew up, I let go of a lot of things. I don’t compete with anyone anymore. I have stopped following. When I started changing my thought processes, everything around me started changing.
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“I now believe in contribution, not competition. I believe that things will always come to me if I am performing at a good level. And even if it is not, it is okay. I do things very differently.” When I was at DC, I did well and I was the highest run-scorer in the team. But I still wasn’t retained. Still, I thought there was some good in it. If I could get things done negative, it will affect me and the people around me. I tried to understand a little bit about psychology. It has made my life peaceful,” said Dhawan.
About six months ago, in July last year, Dhawan led the second-line Indian team in Sri Lanka. However, the T20I series was marred by the outbreak of Covid-19 in the visiting camp and India lost it 1-2.
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