|| India Correspondent ||
India captain Virat Kohli applauded Shikhar Dhawan, citing that the opener's body language was 'amazing' even when he was not on the playing XI during the T20I series. Dhawan was dropped from the team after the first T20I, as Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav made their debuts. And, Kohli himself opened in the final T20I to accommodate new players as well.
"A special mention to Shikhar," Kohli said in the post match presentation. "His body language was amazing when he wasn’t playing. He was motivating players, running with extra stuff like water. Today he deservedly got the result he achieved. Made a very important contribution. You saw it was tricky first up and the openers had to start off that way. In that context, his innings was very important since he batted the tough overs. His contribution was better than what the scorecard was."
Dhawan scored 98 runs in the first ODI and helped India put up a huge total as well. On the other hand, England were going strong and they were at 135 for no loss in 14 overs before India bounced back through their pace bowlers, with the debutant Prasidh Krishna claiming four, Shardul Thakur picking up three and Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting two wickets as well.
"One of our sweetest victories in recent past. We haven’t won many good games in ODIs. A comeback from all our bowlers, getting nine wickets so quickly is outstanding. Going for few runs early on (Prasidh) and coming back was amazing. Krunal as well. Shardul, Bhuvi were amazing," he again said.
"I am a really proud man right now. Team showed great character and intensity. As I’ve mentioned in the past as well, we promote players who have intent and back their skills. Special mention to Shikhar’s innings as well. Didn’t get much after the first T20I. KL as well, back among the runs. So we want to back people who will do a selfless job. It’s a healthy competition between everyone for every slot. We have 2-3 players available for every slot. The management has done these discussions with senior players as well. We are on the right path," Kohli concluded.