Shikhar Dhawan, current Indian ODI and T20 cricketer, was born on 5 December 1985. The left-handed opener was born into a Punjabi family in Delhi. At the age of 12, he trained at Sonnet Club where Tarak Sinha was his coach.

Dhawan represented the Indian Under-17 and Under-19 teams and made his first-class debut in November 2004 while playing for Delhi against Andhra in a Ranji Trophy game. In the 2004-05 Ranji season, he became Delhi’s highest run-scorer in with an aggregate of 461 runs from 6 matches and a high score of 130.

Dhawan made his ODI debut against Australia in October 2010 at Visakhapatnam on 20 October.

He made his T20 debut when he was picked up for the Indian tour of West Indies in June 2011.

Dhawan made his Test debut with a bang in Mohali against Australia when he scored the fastest-ever century by a debutant, scoring 187 off 174 balls.

His peak form was witnessed in the 2015 World Cup, where he was the highest run-getter for India. In 2016, he became the fastest Indian player to reach 3,000 ODI runs.

Dhawan is known for his aggressive stroke-play. He is renowned for his cuts and drives. He also can hit the ball a long way on the leg side as well.

Owing to some of his shortcomings, he is not being considered anymore for Test matches.

Dhawan made it to the ICC World ODI XI in the year 2013. He was named CEAT international batsman of the year 2018. He was also one of Widen cricketers of the year 2014.

In the inaugural IPL, Dhawan, nicknamed Gabbar after the villain in the legendary Bollywood film Sholay, played for Delhi Daredevils. He switched over to Mumbai Indians in the second and third IPL seasons. When Dhawan shifted to the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chargers, he became one of the more prolific IPL batsmen. He was instrumental along with David Warner in helping Sunrisers Hyderabad lift their maiden IPL title in 2016. When he was again picked up Delhi Capitals in the 2019 season, Dhawan was named in the Cricinfo IPL XI for his performances. 

After he married his girlfriend, Melbourne-based Ayesha Mukherjee, in 2012, he soon relocated to Melbourne.