India vs England: Shikhar Dhawan sweats it out in training ahead of first T20I, see pics

Team India opener Shikhar Dhawan is training hard for the upcoming five-match T20I series against India and with questions being raised as to who will open with star batsman Rohit Sharma in the T20I series, the 35-year-old batsman is ensuring he ticks all the boxes going into the first game on Friday.

Meanwhile, Dhawan on Wednesday shared glimpses of how his training for the shortest format has fared. In the pictures, the left-handed batsman is not only seen smashing his signature sweep shot, but also honing his fielding skills.

"All in a training day's work," Dhawan tweeted.

All in a training day's work pic.twitter.com/v4ws2Osgln — Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) March 10, 2021

Notably, former India batsman VVS Laxman has picked Rohit and KL Rahul as the opening pair for the upcoming T20I series.

According to the former batsman, Dhawan -- despite being in great touch -- can be used as a backup opener keeping in mind this year's T20 World Cup in India.

Speaking on a TV show, Laxman said, "It will be a tough question, as far as the selection of the second opener is concerned. There's no doubt about that because Rohit Sharma is an automatic choice in white-ball cricket. I will still go with KL Rahul because over the last few months and years I think the Indian team management went with KL Rahul as an opening batsman and he has done really well in that position.

"Yes, Shikhar Dhawan had a fantastic IPL, the way he batted at the top of the order, scoring centuries for Delhi Capitals and then he's in tremendous form for Delhi in the Vijay Hazare, where he scored a big 100 in that tournament as well. With KL Rahul as an opening combination, you want someone who's second. Keeping in mind the T20 World Cup, you have to identify who your openers are going to be there in the World Cup and back them; don't chop and change. You have someone as experienced as Shikhar Dhawan, who can be the backup opener in case one of these openers Rohit Sharma/KL Rahul gets injured or lose their form," he added.

India will take on England in the five-match T20I series starting from Friday (March 12).

India T20 squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.