'He's been playing a pink suit gear dog, is in the form of his life': Swann identifies veteran India batter as 'Mr. IPL'
Graeme Swann said that he has loved every minute of the player batting at his prime and he seems to be enjoying the form his life in the ongoing IPL.
Indian batters have given a good account of themselves in the early part of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL). While Jos Buttler is the outright leader in the Orange Cap table, the rest of the top 10 includes only three more overseas players while the likes of KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube feature.
This includes veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan, who, while still being considered an important part of the Indian ODI setup, recently lost his place in the national T20 side to Rahul. Dhawan has continued to show in the IPL this season that he remains one of the most destructive Indian batters around in the T20 format and former England spinner Graeme Swann has said that the senior Punjab Kings opener is in the “form of his life”.
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Dhawan has scored 205 runs thus far this season in six matches for the Punjab Kings. This includes a 50-ball 70 against the Mumbai Indians which helped PBKS win the match by 12 runs.
“Clearly he's in the form of his life. I mean he's been playing a pink suit gear dog in the TATA IPL. I mean he is Mr. IPL (for me) and I love watching every minute of him bat like that,” Swann said on Star Sports.
Swann identified the shot that Dhawan hits early on in his innings which tells him that the Indian is in for a big score.
“As soon as Shikhar Dhawan plays a shot over extra cover for a six early on in his innings, you know he's in for a good time. And these are some vintage Shikhar Dhawan shots. He's brilliant down the ground, brilliant over the square, that little ramp over the top, a flick to the leg side. He's amazing,” said Swann.
Dhawan's efforts against the Mumbai Indians helped him go past Suresh Raina as the all-time highest run scorer against the five-time IPL champions. He is also the just 11 runs away from becoming the second player after Virat Kohli to score 6000 runs in the IPL. Dhawan is the second highest run scorer in the history of the tournament, only behind Kohli and ahead of the likes of Rohit Sharma, Raina, David Warner and Chris Gayle.