Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian international cricketer. A left-handed opening batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler, he plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and Delhi Capitals in the IPL. He played for the Indian Under-17 and Under-19 teams before making his first-class debut for Delhi in November 2004. At the 2015 World Cup, he was the leading run-scorer for India and in the following year, became the fastest Indian to reach 3,000 ODI runs. In December 2017, he became the 2nd fastest Indian to reach 4000 ODI runs. Dhawan also holds the record for most runs in a calendar year in Twenty20 International cricket (689). He is known for his successful and crucial knocks in ICC Tournaments.
Dhawan made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Australia in October 2010 at Visakhapatnam. 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. A prolific run-scorer in ICC tournaments, Dhawan top-scored in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, and the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy tournaments, and holds the record for the fastest to reach 1000 runs in ICC ODI tournaments.
In August 2013, he 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. 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. On 14 June 2018, against Afghanistan, he became the sixth batsman, and the first for India, to score a century before lunch on day one of a Test.