Dhawan's doggedness better than numbers suggest

Of the nine series that Shikhar Dhawan has played he has gone without at least a half-century in four. Two of those four series have been of three Tests and longer. Add to it the tour of Australia, where he was dropped for the last Test despite one fifty. It is fair to say he has not come close to replicating the kind of touch he displayed in his debut Test or close to the team's expectations of running away with a game, but at times - including this series - he has played better than what his numbers suggest. It is funny how it is the exact opposite of his ODI performances, where he has had more than a fair share of reprieves when he scores centuries.

Flamboyant Dhawan might be reputed to be, but it has actually been good to watch him fight hard, after the poor shots in Mohali, for an average of 25 in a series where the overall average of the top-seven batsmen has been 22.17. He has faced 58 balls per dismissal when the average for the top seven has been 52. It is one thing for the management to say "that's the way he plays" after he got out for a pair twice chasing wide deliveries in Mohali, but it is quite another for the batsman who feels he owes runs to his team.

Dhawan has accordingly tightened his game since that Mohali Test. In Bangalore, he weathered the early storm but it rained when it was time for him to capitalise. In Nagpur, he batted 68 minutes and two hours for his 12 and 39, but he fell to the pitch in the first innings - half-volley stopping at him and popping for a return catch - and a freak catch by the wicketkeeper off a well-timed reverse sweep in the second.

In this Test, Dhawan hardly made mistakes against some of the best bowling India faced in the match: from Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott. He faced 89 balls from them, scored just 29 runs, but made wrong choices - the prod outside off - only on four occasions. He left them alone 33 times, didn't follow them with the hands when the ball seamed away, and the only times he was troubled was when the ball was banged in and came off at an awkward pace, defeating his shots down the leg side.

The problematic push with a slightly or completely open face, away from the body, came only after Dhawan had settled down. The first time he played that shot, Dhawan had already played 47 balls, and timed Morkel superbly for a four past point. It wasn't like he was missing out on scoring opportunities because of his circumspection, but he rarely got bad balls when he batted. He drove only the really full balls, and showed exemplary discipline in both innings. He did play some part in making sure those who scored runs for India in this Test faced tired bowlers bowling with an older ball.

Contrary to the perception, it is remarkable for a man who at least on paper is given the license to play the way he plays to actually buckle down for so long on difficult pitches. In a series where batsmen have been contributing to their own downfall because of the pitches that have played havoc with their minds, Dhawan has actually backed his defence and leaves after the Mohali shocker. He made them bowl two really good balls to get him out here. In the first innings, Dane Piedt followed up a big offbreak with one that didn't turn, and in the second Morkel bowled a searing yorker to take out the base of the leg stump.

In that he looked for runs every time there was a small error in line, this was an improvement on his second-innings effort in Galle, where he might have lost out on scoring opportunities while he just left and left and left in that failed Indian chase. He scored 28 off 83 balls there and spin got him. That Dhawan has fought on for long periods of time, curbing his natural instinct, for five innings in recent times without a fifty is bound to confound him and the team management. There will be questions asked of his game, especially with semi-defensive fields restricting his scoring areas to singles. Against Australia on debut, Dhawan was up against a side desperate to cancel the series deficit, so every time he hit a gap he got four for it. Now teams have wizened to him.

The challenge for Dhawan now is to find those singles, which he does really well in ODIs. The runs are what will count in the end. The fact that he played some part in making sure Virat Kohli, who scored four centuries in Australia, almost always came in to bat when the Kookaburra had lost its shine will lose out to the runs in the longer run. Why, even in Australia he ended up getting dropped.

Dhawan is one of the more fascinating batsmen going around today. At times he scored hundreds without looking pretty. At times he hardly scores while looking a million dollars. He can sandwich an ordinary ODI series between Test hundreds. He can start scratchily and turn an innings around with one shot. His biggest challenge, though, is to convert these dogged disciplined efforts into big innings. That he has applied himself so well in a tough series for batsmen might have earned him some time.