New Delhi: Accepting one’s follies is often the key to achieving great things.

And Delhi opener Shikhar Dhawan doesn’t shy away from confessing that a lack of maturity and inconsistency is the prime reason that he hasn’t yet taken the leap from the domestic to the international stage successfully.

Speaking to MAIL TODAY, the newly-married Dhawan said that over the years, he has been guilty of not only throwing his wicket away, but also of not scoring big runs on a consistent basis.

“Over the years, I have always ended up throwing my wicket away. I shall say it was my immaturity that I never valued the importance of staying at the crease and making hay while the sun shines,” he said.

“I have had opportunities here and there, but I haven’t been consistent enough to stake my claim for a permanent spot in the Indian team. You have to score 1,000-1,500 runs in a domestic season on a regular basis.”

Dhawan says he realised the importance of being consistent during his tour of West Indies with the national team last year.

“That tour was an eye-opener for me. I scored a fifty in the opening match of the series, but failed to convert it into a three-figure score. I should have scored a couple more fifties and maybe I would have been a part of the ODI team that toured England. But I failed to grasp the opportunity and I haven’t received another one since,” he said.

But now, interactions with Virender Sehwag have really helped Dhawan cleared his mind.

“I interacted quite a lot with Viru bhai recently and he made one thing very clear to me. He said that every time a batsman goes out to bat, he should think of it as the only opportunity to show the world how good a batsman he is,” the 26-year-old left-handed batsman said.

“I feel that has really made me value my wicket and now whenever I go out to the middle, I try and put a heavy price-tag on my wicket.”

Being a nationally contracted player, he can train at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore whenever he wants, and he feels training with Yuvraj Singh the last time he was there has also made him realise the importance of self-introspection.

“Yuvi paji was at the NCA when I went there last time and the experience I had was amazing. Having battled cancer himself, he does know what fighting adversity means and all he told me was that we should always sit down and think about the mistakes we are committing,” he said.