After a long hiatus of 6 years, Dhawan played a match in the Indian Premier League. With his performance, he proved that he deserved the golden chance. He bagged 2 cruical wickets and contributed significantly to Punjab’s 11-run victory.
Rishi Dhawan last played for Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) in the world’s biggest T20 league. After this, Kolkata Knight Riders bought him in 2017, but he spent whole season sitting in the dugout. Yesterday, he has the responsibility to bowl the last over to biggest and most feared finisher of the game, MS Dhoni. His first ball was heaved for a six by Dhoni. However, after bowling a wide and a dot, he made a great comeback and bagged Dhoni’s wicket as well as the match.
Rishi Dhawan hails from Himachal Pradesh and represents the state team in Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare and Mustaq Ali Trophy. Himachal Pradesh’s Dhawan had led his home team to the Maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title last year. He was the second highest wicket taker and second highest run scorer in this tournament. It was only after this feat in domestic cricket that Dhawan got this opportunity in IPL 2022. Dhawan played his first IPL match for Mumbai Indians in 2013.
The 32 years old paceman has played 27 matches in IPL ans has good numbers. He is a lower order all rounder with ability to score quick runs. In 17 innings played, he has scored 153 runs with an average of 21.86. His bowling record is a better as he has bagged 20 wickets in 26 winnings. With ball in hand, his economy is 7.96 which is considered a good economy in this format.
Shikhar Dhawan, too, performed brilliantly against Chennai Super Kings and scored a match winning 89 runs. Both Rishi Dhawan and Punjab Kings opener Shikhar Dhawan are in a lot of discussion on Twitter because of their match winning performances last night.
Rishi was born in Himachal Pradesh. Apart from playing with the same team in IPL 2022, Rishi has also played 3 ODI matches for India with Shikhar. It will be interesting to see if Punjab Kings will advance with Rishi Dhawan in upcoming matches as they are mostly inconsistent with the team set-up.