Shikhar Dhawan, born on December 5, 1985, is a left-handed opening batsman for India who also represents Delhi in first-class cricket and the Delhi Capitals in the IPL. His favorite cricketers are Sachin Tendulkar and Andy Flower. His favorite food is Butter Chicken and his favorite books are “Blink” and “The Secret”. His nickname is “Gabbar”.
His hobbies are doing Yoga, Swimming, reading, and playing table tennis. He is from Delhi and did his schooling at St. Mark’s Senior secondary school in Delhi. His favorite shot is the cut shot.
He holds the record for the most runs in a U-19 world cup with 505 runs in the 2004 U-19 World cup. He is also the fastest batsman to reach 1000 runs in ICC tournaments (16 innings). He was also the leading scorer for India in the 2015 World cup and has the fastest century ever on test debut.
Shikhar Dhawan was the player of the tournament in the 2004 U-19 World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions trophy. He is also the fastest Indian to reach 3000 ODI runs and was part of the ICC ODI Eleven for 2013. Wisden also named Dhawan as the cricketer of the year in 2014.
The southpaw is regarded as one of the best ODI batsmen currently and with Rohit Sharma, has formed arguably the most formidable opening partnership in ODI cricket. He is also widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of all time in ICC tournaments.
Family
Shikhar Dhawan was born to Mahendra Pal Dhawan and Sunaina Dhawan as part of a Punjabi family. He also has a sister named Shreshta Dhawan.
Shikhar married Anglo-Indian Ayesha Mukherjee on 30th October 2012 in New Delhi. She was born in India but soon moved to Australia and is a trained kickboxer. She was a mother of two daughters, Aliyah and Rhea, from her previous marriage and Shikhar adopted them. In 2014, the couple gave birth to their son Zoravar.
Dhawan’s nicknames to his family from childhood are “Babbu” and “Archit”.
Early age cricket and Under 19 Cricket World cup
Shikhar Dhawan started his cricketing journey by training at the Sonnet club since the age of 12 under coach Tarak Sinha. Upon joining the club, Shikhar was a wicketkeeper-batsman.
Dhawan’s first real high-level cricket was for the Delhi under 16’s in the 1999-2000 Vijay Merchant trophy. In the subsequent tournament next season, he was the leading run-scorer with 755 runs at an average of 83.88 that included a top score of 199. Based on his impressive performances in the Vijay Merchant trophy, he was selected in the North Zone Under-16’s squad for the Vijay Hazare trophy in 2001.
Dhawan then had impressive performances in the Under 17 Asia cup averaging 85 and was selected to the Delhi Under 19 team in 2001. Dhawan continued his impressive and consistent showing in the Delhi Under 19 matches in various high-profile tournaments like the Vijay Merchant Trophy, Cooch Behar Trophy, Vinoo Mankad Trophy, MA Chidambaram trophy, and CK Nayudu trophy.
These performances led to him being selected to the Indian squad for the Under 19 World cup in Bangladesh in 2004. Dhawan ended up as the leading scorer in the tournament with 505 runs at a staggering average of 84.16 that resulted in him being named the Player of the tournament as well. His overall tally still stands as the record for most runs in an Under 19 World cup.
Dhawan finally made his first-class debut in November 2004 for Delhi against Andhra in the 2004-05 season and ended up as the side’s leading run-scorer in that season with 461 runs in 6 innings. Dhawan then made his List A debut in the one-day tournament that followed in January 2005 and made back-to-back centuries against Himachal Pradesh and Haryana that enabled his selection to the India Seniors squad for the Challenger trophy. His impressive 126 in a run chase sharing a 246-run partnership with MS Dhoni enabled his selection to the India A team for the one-off ODI against Pakistan.
Dhawan had middling seasons from 2005-2006 to 2007-2008 seasons in the Ranji trophy with inconsistency being the main factor keeping him from taking the next leap. This continued further in the 2008-09 season as well where he found form in the Ranji season and the Challenger trophy but had a lean phase in the Vijay Hazare trophy.
During this period, Dhawan also played for the Delhi Daredevils in season 1 of the IPL and the Mumbai Indians for seasons two and three from 2008-2010. He was later bought by Hyderabad from Season 4 of the IPL.
In the meanwhile, Dhawan continued to have inconsistent seasons between 2010 and 2012 across formats for Delhi/India A/ Rest of India across various tournaments where he would show sparks of brilliance in numerous matches with match-winning innings only to be followed by some low scores.
Debut in Indian Cricket Team
Shikhar Dhawan was selected to the Indian squad in October 2010 when the selectors chose a Second-string squad for the 3 ODI series against Australia. Unfortunately, he was out for a duck in his ODI debut in the 2nd ODI of the series. Post this, Dhawan got his opportunity when he was selected to the T20 and ODI squads for the tour of the West Indies in 2011. However, barring a 50 in the first ODI, Shikhar had low returns in the other ODI’s and the one-off T20.
Shikhar returned to the domestic circuit and had a solid 2012-13 season on the back of which he was rewarded with a selection to the Indian test squad in February 2013 for the 4-test series against Australia at home. He did not get an opportunity in the first two tests but owing to Sehwag’s poor form, Dhawan was finally handed his test debut in the 3rd test at Mohali.
He opened the batting with Murali Vijay after Australia had compiled 408 in their first innings and went on to make a stunning 187 in his debut innings while reaching his 100 in just 85 balls in the process. It was the fastest century ever on test debut and propelled India to a resounding victory.
However, he suffered an injury while fielding in the match and hence couldn’t bat in the second innings and was subsequently ruled out of the final test as well.
His debut inning of 187 was named as the best test batting performance in 2013 by Cricinfo.
Breakthrough Inning
Dhawan had a stunning test debut innings of 187 that felt like his breakthrough in international cricket. However, the unfortunate injury in the very match followed by a layoff period meant that he had to redeem himself to get selected and establish himself as a consistent member of the Indian eleven.
He came back in the 2013 IPL Season and displayed good form while tallying 311 runs in the 10 matches he played at a healthy average of 38.87. This led to his selection in the Indian squad for the 2013 Champions trophy in England. Dhawan opened the batting with Rohit Sharma in the tournament for the first time and it went a long way in establishing arguably India’s greatest opening partnership that is intact to date.
In the first match of the tournament, Shikhar scored his maiden ODI century, smashing 114 off 94 deliveries against a great South African attack and pushed India to a massive score of 330. He followed that up with another unbeaten century against the West Indies and a crucial 68 in the semi-finals against Sri Lanka. Dhawan ended the tournament with a stunning tally of 363 runs from 5 matches at an average of 91 and a strike rate over 100. He was also the highest run-scorer of the tournament and the man of the series as India lifted one of the most prestigious ICC trophies.
His innings against South Africa in the opening match of the tournament was arguably his breakthrough inning as it kickstarted a terrific ODI career for Shikhar where he has established himself as one of the Greatest ODI openers of all time and formed an inimitable opening partnership with Rohit Sharma that has been the rock behind India’s tremendous white-ball success over the last 6 to 7 years.
Future in Cricket
Shikhar has reinvented himself in the T20 arena with an excellent IPL for the Delhi Capitals over the last two seasons. Last season, Shikhar became the first batter to score back-to-back centuries in the IPL and went on to score a total of 618 runs for the season that propelled Delhi to the finals of the IPL 2020.
His injury midway through the 2019 World cup became a key factor in India’s inability to win the trophy as he is a renowned big tournament player. He was the leading run-scorer overall in the last two ICC Champions Trophies in 2013 and 2017 and was India’s leading run-scorer in the 2015 World cup as well.
This unique ability to perform at a supreme level in the biggest ODI Tournaments has led to the common belief that he will be India’s key batsman in the subsequent ICC World cups. His resurgence in the T20 format over the last couple of IPL’s has meant that Shikhar would be critical to India’s chances at the back-to-back T20 world cups coming up shortly.
Having established himself as one of the 3 mainstays in India’s top order in ODI and T20 cricket, he will be a key figure in India’s future tournaments over the next 3 to 4 years. In the process, he could also try to resurrect his test career that has fallen off after the promising debut due to a lack of consistency.
Nevertheless, Shikhar Dhawan remains one of India’s best ODI batsmen of all time.
