Does Dhawan raise his game for ICC tournaments?
The numbers seem to say so, but as always, there is more to it than meets the eye
Shikhar Dhawan's average in the Champions Trophy is now 92.66, thanks to big performances in the 2013 edition and a century against Sri Lanka in the ongoing one, but his love affair with ICC tournaments began long ago. In the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, he scored 505 runs at an average of 84.16, with three centuries in seven innings.
His next world tournament was the 2013 Champions Trophy in England, and he averaged 90.75 at a strike rate of 101, with two hundreds in five innings. He was the leading run-getter and won the Man-of-the-Series award. Then came the 2015 World Cup in Australia, where Dhawan scored 412 at 51.50 at a strike rate of almost 92. His eight innings in the tournament included 73 against Pakistan and 137 against South Africa. He was India's highest run-getter in the tournament and fifth overall. After scoring a half-century and hundred in the first two games of this year's Champions Trophy, he is well ahead of everyone else in the list of leading run-getters in big ODI tournaments since 2013.
His average in big ODI tournaments is 69.14, which is much higher than his overall ODI average of 44.36, so it would appear so. But you have to take a few things into account. First, his performances in World T20s has been poor - he averages 10.57. So he clearly doesn't perform above par in all big tournaments across formats.