Navi Mumbai: Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann has praised Punjab Kings opener Shikhar Dhawan in the ongoing IPL 2022 season and named him ‘Mr IPL’. So far in IPL 2022, Dhawan has scored 197 runs in five matches at an average of 39.40 and strike-rate of 133.10. In their match against Mumbai Indians in Pune, Dhawan set up a top score of 70 and joined skipper Mayank Agarwal in a 97-run opening stand to lay the groundwork for a 12-run victory.
Now, ahead of Sunday’s match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the DY Patil Stadium, Dhawan is just 19 runs away from touching the 6000-run mark in IPL history. If he scored 19 runs, he would become the second batsman after Virat Kohli to do so.
Dhawan has so far scored 5,981 runs in 197 IPL matches at an average of 34.97 and a strike rate of 126.85. He also holds the record for most fours in the history of the tournament with 673 fours.
“I love watching Mr IPL bat,” Swann said on a cricket live show on Star Sports.
Praising Dhawan, Swann claimed that in IPL 2022, you will get to see the stroke of a ‘vintage Dhawan’ with Dhawan’s bat.
Punjab Kings is Dhawan’s fifth team, having previously played for Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, former Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
first published:April 17, 2022, 4:03 pm
