The Bangladesh vs India ODI series, 2015 will always be remembered as the series in which rookie left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman led charge to give Bangladesh their first bilateral series win against India. As hard as it is to take away positives from this tour for India, there are some. R Ashwin’s excellent bowling rhythm and MS Dhoni’s decision to promote himself at No. 4 are a couple of them. Another big plus for India on this tour was the batting of Shikhar Dhawan. After notching up a 173-run knock in the lone Test terribly marred by rain, the opening batsman finished as the highest run-getter in the ODI series with an aggregate of 158 runs including two fifties – the second one (75 off 73 balls) giving India a win in the final ODI by 77 runs. He was also one of the only two among India’s top-six (Virat Kohli being the other one) whose name remained absent from the list of Mustafizur’s victims – a significant fact given the Bangladeshi pacer took 13 wickets in three matches. After securing a win in the last match, Dhawan spoke to bcci.tv about his form throughout the tour and gave a first-hand insight into facing Mustafizur. What would you personally take away from this tour? It is difficult to take back a lot when you haven’t won the series. But if I had to take something, it would be the feeling of scoring runs consistently and fulfilling the team’s needs at the top of the order. I am batting well and feeling good about my form. This ODI series will be remembered for Mustafizur Rahman. What made him so difficult to play? First of all there was the unknown factor since we had never seen or faced him before. Secondly, he knew the conditions very well. His slower ball was very effective here because he was getting that turn from the wicket. He bowls that slower one at the right length and so, was the perfect bowler for this pitch. You didn’t give him your wicket even once. I just tried to play him on merit, give him due respect. It’s not that I didn’t score off him either (28 runs off 31 balls over the three matches). One good thing about my game is that my strike-rate is always pretty decent. I don’t waste too many deliveries. I maintained that mindset against him. Do you think he has to be careful in not overusing his cutters in order to avoid being predictable? Definitely. He’s just starting out right now and as he plays more and more, teams will have access to his videos and will eventually figure him out. Also, not every wicket will be like this. We will have to see how he does away from Bangladesh on tougher wickets. Sometimes, it also happens that a player has tremendous skills but he doesn’t know how to handle the pressure. It will be seen how he handles pressure going forward. As a fellow cricketer I wish him well for the future. Initially in the series you looked a bit edgy but during your innings in the second ODI you got into a good rhythm. What changed? I understood their plan against me. They were not giving me fuller balls because they knew that the drive is my strength. They kept on bowling short of a length. Earlier I was trying to get on the front foot to those balls thinking I will create the drives from that length. Then I changed the plan. I started to attack on the backfoot, coaxing them to bowl full. And that’s what they did. MS Dhoni has said that now he would bat regularly at No. 4. You had a partnership with him today. Does his coming up the order affect your game in any way? It does. It gives me a lot of confidence to see him walk into the middle while I am at the crease. We also enjoy each other’s company and so it’s fun batting with him. The way he adapts to various situations makes my life easier. Today I couldn’t get the off-spinner (Nasir Hossain) away and he hit a four and a six in an over against him. That kept me from taking any unwarranted risk. He also rotates the strike excellently when required and doesn’t let any scoreboard pressure build on his partner. Having him in the middle-order is very advantageous for us. I feel it’s a very good move. The team was obviously hurt after the first two losses. What did it take to come out and play like you guys did today? We were really hurt that we lost the series against Bangladesh. The bottom line was that they played good cricket and we didn’t. Those two losses hit everyone hard and we all looked back at them and tried to find why we lost. It shook everyone knowing that we lost to them despite being a much better team. That really fired us up to put everything into this last match. Also, after playing two matches here, we had a much better idea of the wicket today. We got into that rhythm and made it count.