Matthew Wade and Shikhar Dhawan are both left-hander opening batsmen and both are good at what they do. The India tour of Australia should be a perfect ground for us to compare both these batsmen and decide who is more destructive. In the T20 format, the batsman has very little time to get set and he has to start dealing in 6s and 4s from the first over itself. It is up to the openers to set the platform for the next batsman to come and both Shikhar and Wade have raw talent for scoring runs against the new ball. Wade is more of calm yet an explosive type of batsman who takes a risk in the powerplay and starts playing strategically after the powerplay. Dhawan too tries to take advantage of the powerplay but also plays with more care for his wicket since he realizes how important it is to maintain his wicket.
Wade made his T20 debut in 2011 and has played 33 T20I for Australia. He did not play well in the first T20 against India, but he showed an explosive performance as an opener in the next two matches. He scored 58 of 32 in the 2nd match and 80 of 53 in the 3rd match. That takes his T20 strike rate to a stunning 124.5 at an average of 22.5 runs. The shots he plays in the powerplay are all intended to go over the fielders in the 30-yard circle and meet the boundary.
Shikhar Dhawan, on the other side, is more of a small explosion but a huge impact type of player. Shikhar has been an important part of the Indian batting side and has been splendid as an opener in ODIs and T20s. Shikhar too didn’t score in the first T20 but managed to score 52 of 36 in the 2nd and 28 of 21 in the 3rd T20I against Australia. His T20 strike rate is at 128.3 at an average of 28.3 runs. It is significantly greater than Wade’s stats and that makes him a more dependable option and an opener.
