Dhawan credits mental preparation for his wondrous form

Dambulla (Sri Lanka), Aug 20 (IANS) Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan credited his mental preparation for his wondrous form which helped the visitors rout Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the first One Day International match here on Sunday.

Power-packed innings from Man of the Match Dhawan (132 in 90 balls) and skipper Virat Kohli (82 off 70) guided India to a comfortable victory. Both players forged a 197-run partnership for the second wicket.

"Things have been going well for me and I've just been focussing on my processes. I have mental freedom and when you perform well, you have extra confidence. By the grace of God, things are going my way," Dhawan said after the match.

Skipper Virat Kohli also praised Dhawan for his innings and said the team wanted him to stay in the happy zone, which he is in now.

"The last three months have been a great time for Dhawan and he's cashing in on his purple patch. Hopefully he stays in this happy zone and we'll make sure he stays there, because he will win you games as long he's in it. Once he starts going, it's very difficult to stop him," Kohli said.

It all went good for India in this match. After a little bit of punishment initially, their bowlers bounced back in style to restrict the hosts for 216 and then Dhawan and Kohli applied themselves perfectly to chase down the total with 21.1 overs (127 balls) remaining. This also helped them to record their biggest win, in terms of overs to spare, for a target of over 200.

Kohli also said that now the team is all set for the 2019 World Cup and now one can expect a lot of changes in the team.

"Yes (we have our eyes set on 2019). You have to prepare 24 months in advance. We're going to experiment and embrace that. You can (expect to) see a lot of changes," Kohli said.