Youngsters should be given a good run: Dhawan

India have kick-started the road the T20 World Cup in October next year in all earnestness and senior opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan felt youngsters should be a given a fair run in the coming months before they button down the probable squad.

“Whatever we want to achieve at the World Cup, we are already practicing now. So, by the time we reach the World Cup we are refined and we know our roles with great clarity which is very very important. As we are trying youngsters, it is good that we give them a good run. They can express themselves because when young players come into the team it takes time for them to express themselves,” said Dhawan at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

“The young boys are taking these opportunities with both hands. With all their domestic and IPL experiences, they get a lot of benefits. Their confidence level is already high because they played with and against international players and that is a huge boost and bonus for us. For example in the last match Shreyas (Iyer) finished the game. You can see from his body language that his belief, his confidence is high. He did pretty well in the West Indies. I’m sure the management will give them long runs so they can come and become great players for our nation.”

South Africa batsman Rassie van der Dussen, meanwhile, felt containing the India top-order triumvirate of Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is a hard challenge. “Those guys are world-class players, probably the three of the best T20 batters the world has ever seen. Virat and Rohit are the two leading run-scorers at the moment in the international T20s. It’s a great challenge for young bowlers coming here to bowl to those type of guy.

“We know what challenge is all, there are a lot of challenges coming to India and we are honest to ourselves and saying that if we gonna win, we have to be our best to nullify these types of players.

“We got Rohit early other night, Shikhar played well though again we didn’t have a score to put pressure on him and Virat and the partnership were massive. Come tomorrow we can play to execute our plans and get in the situation so that we can put those guys in pressure.”