Shikhar Dhawan: To do well, you need big heart and captain's backing

North Sound Antigua Shikhar Dhawan has always had the uncanny knack of producing goods when the chips are down which he attributes to his big heart and the backing he has got from skipper Virat Kohli and coach Anil KumbleIndias Shikhar Dhawan plays a shot bowled by West Indies captain Jason Holder during day one of their first cricket Test match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound Antigua PicAP PTIDhawan scored a polished 84 and is certainly feeling a bit less pressure after there were unconfirmed reports that KL Rahul with backtoback halfcenturies in practice games will replace him in the playing XI I feel it is important for any player if the captain and the coach are backing you and it gives a lot of confidence Thats what matters and you also need to have selfbelief that you can do that and it is a mixture of everything Dhawan told mediapersons after the first days playOpening is the toughest job and you need a big heart for it when facing the new ball on a new fresh wicket Bowlers also bowl with full energy and as opener your technique should also be good because you have to leave a lot of balls and you need patience as well said DhawanThe middle order needs it too but a new ball has its own challenge Vijay got a good ball and it was a very quick ball I was luckier in that sense as Gabriel was bowling really well he added The Delhi lefthander was however a touch disappointed that he couldnt get to a coveted threefigure mark as he was trapped legbefore by legspinner Devendra BishooI felt disappointed that I got out especially when I was set and scoring runs I had spent enough time out there in the middle and came so close to scoring a hundred he lamented At the same time I am happy that I started on a good note and would like to carry on my good performances in coming matches I want to use the form I am inDhawan did well to survive the first session when pacer Shannon Gabriel was extracting a lot of bounce from the stripAlong with Cheteshwar Pujara the southpaw saw off the session adding 60 runs I feel that in the first session the wicket was fresh and the bowling was very good So I was respecting the good balls and knew that I cannot afford to take a chance because there was extra bounce on the wicket So I was playing close to my body and was not in a hurry and relaxed at the creaseIt helped me later in the innings in both my partnerships with Pujara and Virat Dhawan explained But the best phase of the day came when he put up 105 runs off 163 balls for the fourth wicket with Kohli They looked very comfortable at the crease and runs came quickly for the duo as West Indies looked bereft of ideasHe Kohli played a tremendous knock and continued scoring after his hundred Hopefully he scores big runs and gets a double hundred It feels good to bat with him and we were rotating the strike and scoring runs at a good pace I feel that made a difference because we made the partnership very quickly That is a good thing and it is always a pleasure to watch Virat the way he times the ball said DhawanComparing the two partnerships he saidMy partnership with Pujara was also important because the ball was new at that time and it was important to leave the balls outside the offstump at that time The middleorder got benefit of that because the ball was older and my partnership with Virat benefitted from thatWe scored at good pace and it impacted the game Virat has been batting really well which is not new India did lose Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane at important junctures but Ravichandran Ashwin was promoted up the order and he held fort very well Now the visitors will look to bat long and deep into the second day to get a firm footing inthis Test but a lot of that will depend on how Kohli faresWe are in a good position especially because we are playing with only five batsmen So we will want to bat as long as possible tomorrow and that will also tire them out Good thing is that we have Virat well set and batting Maybe he will score a double ton or even a triple century Dhawan signed off