"He told me, 'are you enjoying the pain?'" - Shikhar Dhawan clears the air on mocking injured Aussie all-rounder during a match

Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan opened up on having mocked former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson. The incident had occurred during the seventh ODI between India and Australia in Bengaluru in 2013.

While Australia were bowling, Watson experienced discomfort and left the field. When he walked out to bat later, Dhawan put in a dive and acted like he had pulled a hamstring to mock Watson.

However, in a recent podcast appearance, Shikhar Dhawan cleared the air on the incident. He revealed that it was Watson who had first sledged him during India's batting, which is why the left-hander had mocked him later on.

"Even with Watson I had an incident. He was bowling to me and it hit me on the chest. He told me, 'are you enjoying the pain?'. I was quiet because I thought it will affect my batting. I did not tell anything. When they were fielding, he pulled a hamstring and went out. When we came to field and he came to bat, I put in a dive and then I started acting like I pulled a hamstring. The physio thought it was my injury, but later he understood it. Watson did not like that thing," he said on Raj Shamani's podcast. (1:07:25)

Shikhar Dhawan scored a crucial 57-ball 60 in that game as India won by 57 runs. He also recalled how David Warner had sledged him once during an Australia tour where he was unable to score more runs.

"I was not scoring in Australia. Warner would come and tell me that I am not scoring I would be dropped soon. He was playing the psychological game with me."

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Shikhar Dhawan's record against Australia

Shikhar Dhawan loved playing against Australia and was also successful against them. Notably, he made his Test and ODI debuts against them as well. He smashed 187 runs in his debut Test innings.

Dhawan played four Tests against Australia. He scored 354 runs from seven innings at an average of 50.57 with a hundred and a half-century. The left-hander played 30 ODIs against them. He piled on 1265 runs at an average of 45.17 with four centuries and seven half-centuries.

In 14 T20Is against Australia, Dhawan scored 347 runs with a strike-rate of 139.35 and two half-centuries.