Will Shikhar Dhawan open with Rohit Sharma at World Twenty20?

Who will partner Rohit Sharma at the top Will Shikhar Dhawan manage to fulfill that role in T20 too While Dhawans ODI numbers are enviable his T20 numbers arent very impressive And if there was one missing piece in Indias T20 jigsaw puzzle it was his utility or the lack of it Thats why Dhawan turning the corner is the biggest gain from the threematch T20 series against Sri LankaShikhar Dhawan in top gear during the Ranchi T20 international against Sri Lanka last week PicAFPDhawan has got some crucial runs and more importantly the way he got them will give India a lot of assurance Before the T20s against Australia last month his T20 strikerate was 96 in the power play overs which is unacceptable for an opener in this format But by the time he finished the series against Lanka it shot up to 150 This is the strongest Indian T20 batting lineup for a very long timeNo more a problemThe form of Rohit Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina allows everyone else to play fearlessly for lasting 20 overs is never in doubt Thats where Dhawans low strikerate was a potential problem but fortunately it isnt anymore While we know that Dhawan was the biggest gain we must also look at what did India try to achieve in this series and how it fared in the processThe objective of this short T20 series was twofold One to define roles for all players they must know where to bat and bowl and how Two get players like Yuvraj in form and also give some matchtime to fringe players like Pandya and Negi For me the second aspect was the top priority because form is critical to T20 successIts imperative to have everyone in top form for theres hardly any time in T20 to find form Also you can play fearlessly only if you have runswickets under your belt And the only way to ensure that people find form is by tinkering with the batting order and shuffling the playing XIDhoni did that with Pandya in Ranchi and it paid dividends The way match panned out in Pune it happened by default for Yuvraj Now that Yuvraj Singh is back in the side its important to find out if he is really back as the matchwinner that we all know him to be The jury was out on this post the three T20s against Australia and unfortunately its still out after the series against Sri LankaThe Asia Cup will provide one last opportunity for MS Dhoni to find that outAs far as the bowling department is concerned it will continue to do the job if the pitches behave the way they did in this series The Indian bowling is ideal for a pitch that offers a bit of spin for that not only makes R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja into matchwinners but also gives plenty of options to Dhoni On such pitches Yuvraj and Raina are more than capable bowlers to pitch in with a few overs each Indias pace resources are thin and therefore its critical to keep Bumrah in form and Nehra fitLesson learntEven though India comfortably won the series it also provided a great lesson The first match in Pune was an eyeopener of sorts for the Indian batting lineup faltered on a pitch that offered seam and swing to the faster bowlersThe problem wasnt so much about the technique to handle seamswing but their ability to adapt to a new situation A red flag shouldve gone up the moment India lost a couple of quick wickets but that didnt happen Indian batsmen continued to bat as if it was one of the flattest pitches which it clearly wasnt 32 for two soon turned to 55 for seven something that shouldnt have happened India would be wiser after that oneoff debacle106Number of runs Shikhar Dhawan scored in three games against Sri Lanka