Shikhar Dhawan reveals the reason behind India's recent success

What's the story?

India are currently at the top of the ICC rankings in both Tests and ODIs. The current Indian team under Virat Kohli has become a strong force to reckon with as the Men in Blue have been brutal whenever they take the field. One of the most important men of the current side, Shikhar Dhawan attributes the team's success to the bench strength and the right blend of experienced players and confident youngsters.

"The reason we are No.1 is because we have got good matured players in the side and the youngsters also are very confident. I believe sharing the dressing room with established players in the IPL has helped them gain confidence. The bench strength is also the reason that the Indian team is so good now. We have a very healthy competition in the side. Every player knows if he doesn't perform there is another batsman who is as good as him, so that's a very good sign and that keeps everyone on their toes. And I think our domestic structure is so good that we are producing such good players," Dhawan told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

In case you didn't know

Ever since making a comeback to the national side during the ICC Champions Trophy, Dhawan has been in a completely different league as he is scoring runs for fun in both Tests and ODIs. He ended the Champions Trophy as the leading run scorer and continued his good form to Sri Lanka where he was named the Man of the Series in the Tests and followed it up with some brilliant performances in the ODIs.

Details

Dhawan also conceded that it was hard for him when he was away from the game last year and how bad he felt during those days. He also spoke about the training that made him fit and how he enjoyed playing for Delhi in the Indian domestic season.

Thanks to his heroics in the Indian Premier League and Deodhar Trophy, he made a comeback to the national side ahead of the Champions Trophy and the rest is history. He also praised Hardik Pandya's performances, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah's death bowling and Ashish Nehra's determination that earned him a comeback to the T20I side in the interview.

What's next?

After missing the ODI series against Australia to be with his ailing wife, Dhawan is named in the Indian T20I squad to take on Australia and the left-hander will look to make up for the time he spent away from the game by scoring a lot of runs in the upcoming series.

Author's Take

As Dhawan pointed out, India's bench strength is easily the best in the world and that is one of the main reasons why the team is performing so well. With the youngsters waiting to grab their opportunities, it also puts some pressure on the seniors to perform as a series of failure will put their place in the team under threat.