Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian cricketer.

A left-handed opening batsman, he captains Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and plays for Delhi in first-class cricket.

Shikhar Dhawan was born on 5 December 1985 in Delhi, India, to Sunaina and Mahendra Pal Dhawan into a Punjabi family.

He completed his schooling at St. Mark's Senior Secondary Public School in Meera Bagh, Delhi.

Since the age of 12, he trained at Sonnet Club under the guidance of coach Tarak Sinha, who has trained 12 international cricketers.

Dhawan was a wicket-keeper when he first joined the club.

Dhawan first played for Delhi Under-16s in the 1999/00 Vijay Merchant Trophy and was the leading run-scorer of the 2000/01 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Delhi finished runners-up.

He scored 755 runs from 9 innings at an average of 83.88 with two centuries and a top score of 199.

Dhawan's impressive performances for Delhi Under-16s were rewarded when he was picked in the India Under-17 squad for the 2000/01 ACC Under-17 Asia Cup.

He played three games in the tournament averaging 85.

Dhawan was selected in the North Zone Under-16s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy in February 2001.

He scored 30 and 66 in the semifinal against South Zone.

Dhawan was subsequently drafted into the Delhi Under-19 team in October 2001, at the age of 15, for the Cooch Behar Trophy.

In 2001/02 Vijay Merchant Trophy, Dhawan impressed once again with the bat by scoring 282 runs in 5 innings at an average of 70.50.

In October 2002, Dhawan was selected again in the Delhi Under-19 team for the Cooch Behar Trophy in which he made 388 runs from 8 innings at an average of 55.42 including two centuries.

He was then picked to play for North Zone Under-19s in January 2003 in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy.

Dhawan scored 45 and 12 in the semifinal against Central Zone, before top-scoring for his team with 71 in the final on a seaming track in Rohtak against East Zone securing his team an innings-win.

In the CK Nayudu Trophy held in February 2003, Dhawan averaged 55.50 with the bat for North Zone Under-19s.

He continued to amass runs at the Under-19 domestic level as he scored 444 runs from 6 innings at an average of 74 in the Cooch Behar Trophy in October after which he was made the captain of the Delhi Under-19 team.

Dhawan averaged 66.66 in the MA Chidambaram Trophy held in December that year which was his first tournament as captain.

Dhawan played for India in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh and finished as the leading run-scorer of the tournament scoring a total of 505 runs.

Dhawan's runs came at an average of 84.16, with three centuries and a fifty, and was named Player of the Tournament.

In the two youth Tests against England the following January, he had scores of 69, 18, and 41.

Dhawan made his first-class debut for Delhi against Andhra in November 2004, in the 2004–05 season of the Ranji Trophy scoring 49 on his debut innings.

He finished as Delhi's leading run-getter that Ranji season with a total of 461 runs from 6 matches and a high score of 130, scoring more runs than experienced players in the team like Ajay Jadeja and Aakash Chopra.

In the Ranji One-day Trophy that followed, Dhawan made his List A debut against Jammu & Kashmir in January 2005.

He then scored back-to-back unbeaten hundreds against Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.

He was picked in the India Seniors squad for the Challenger Trophy in February, in which he opened the innings against India B with future India teammate MS Dhoni.

In the second match, Dhawan scored a 124-ball 126, sharing a 246-run first-wicket partnership with Dhoni who also struck a century, helping India Seniors chase down 276 for the loss of two wickets.

He was selected in the India A team to play in the one-off 50-over match against the touring Pakistani team in March that year.

Dhawan made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Australia in October 2010 at Visakhapatnam.

During the 4th ODI against South Africa in Johannesburg, he became the first Indian and ninth overall to score a century in his 100th ODI game.

At the 2013 Champions Trophy and 2017 Champions Trophy, Dhawan was the leading run-scorer and was awarded the 'Golden Bat' in both the tournaments.

He was awarded the 'Player of the Tournament' for his exploits in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, which he won with his national side.

His Test debut came against the same opposition in March 2013 at Mohali, where he scored the fastest century by any batsman on Test debut and ended his innings with 187 runs from 174 balls.

In August 2013, Dhawan recorded the then-second-highest individual score in a List A match when he scored 248 runs off 150 balls for India A against South Africa A at Pretoria.

He was the leading run scorer for India at the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

He also became the first player in the history of IPL to score two back-to-back centuries.

In the 2018 Asia Cup which Dhawan won with his national side, he was named Player Of The Tournament as he was the top scorer of the tournament with the bat.

On 14 June 2018, against Afghanistan, Dhawan became the sixth batsman, and the first for India, to score a century before lunch on day one of a Test.