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Shikhar Dhawan: “Gabbar” of the Indian Cricket team| Biography| Career| Social And Personal Life
Shikhar Dhawan, aka “Gabbar”, the left-handed batter of the Indian cricket team since his inception in the Indian cricket team he strengthened the top batting order and played some of the vital innings that lead team India to victory in both limited overs and Test cricket, besides that he is an exceptional fielder who not only saves crucial runs for his team but also takes some breath-taking catches to turn the tide of the games, but things were never so easy for him, sheer hard work and never give up attitude of him helped him to improve his game time after time. Let’s look into how Shikhar Dhawan achieved his dream of wearing the blue jersey of the Indian team.
Childhood of Shikhar Dhawan:
Shikhar Dhawan was born on December 5, 1985, in Delhi, India, to Mahendra Pal Dhawan (his father) and Sunaina Pal Dhawan (his mother). From a very young age, he developed an interest in cricket and joined the Sonnet Club, a cricket academy, when he was just 12. He started training under the guidance of coach Tarak Sinha. He studied at St. Mark’s Senior Secondary Public School, and initially he started as a wicketkeeper in cricket.
Shikhar Dhawan’s Cricket Career so far:
Domestic Cricket:
Shikhar Dhawan had his first-class debut in the year 2004 in the Ranji Trophy, and in that year he was the highest run scorer from Delhi’s Ranji team. He played some fine knocks thereafter in both the Ranji and Challenger trophies, but was inconsistent in scoring runs in the year 2005, but got back to his real form in the year 2006, playing some good innings in most of the tournaments of that year.
International Cricket Career:
Dhawan was selected in the Indian team for the tour of Australia for a 3-match ODI series. Back in 2010, in his debut match, he got out without troubling the scoreboard. Later on in the series against West Indies, when the star openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag got injured, he got the chance despite his poor performance in previous matches. In his first match against West Indies, he managed to score a half-century.
The turning point of his career started in 2012-13 when Shikhar Dhawan started making runs like a machine and was the top scorer in the ICC Champions Trophy of the year 2013, leading his team to its maiden ICC Champions Trophy win. Continuing his impeccable form, he played some great innings in the coming years as well, and India got the opener batsman it was looking for a long time.
IPL:
When the IPL started back in 2008, he was part of the franchise Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals), and later he played for different franchises, including Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers, and became captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Now he is the captain of the Punjab Kings (an IPL cricket franchise). He also gave credit to the IPL for its contribution to improving his game so much.
Shikhar Dhawan IPL and International Cricket Stats:
Here are the batting stats of the left handed opener of Indian cricket team:
| Format | Batting Average | Centuries |
| T20I | 27.92 | 0 |
| ODI | 44.11 | 17 |
| Test Cricket | 40.61 | 7 |
| IPL | 36.14 | 2 |
Shikhar Dhawan’s Records and Achievements in Cricket:
Here are some of the achievements of Shikhar Dhawan’s cricket career so far:
- Shikhar Dhawan was the highest run scorer in the Asia Cup 2018, and the only Indian player to get two consecutive golden bats at the ICC Champions trophy in the years 2013 and 2017.
- He was bestowed with Arjuna Award in the year 2021, for his contribution to the sports.
- He is the fastest batter to make 1000 runs in the ICC tournaments.
- He became the first Indian batter to score a century before lunch on the first day of a test match in the year 2018 while playing against Afghanistan.
Social and Personal life of Shikhar Dhawan:
Shikhar Dhawan loves entertaining the masses and he frequently updates his fans about the current happenings of his life, he got married to Ayesha Mukherjee in the year 2012, Ayesha is an amateur kick-boxer and they together have a son named “Zorawar” in the year 2014, before marrying Shikhar Dhawan Ayesha had two daughters from her previous marriage, both of them were adopted by Shikhar Dhawan. In the year 2021 the duo got separated.
Shikhar Dhawan also runs his NGO named “Shikhar Dhawan Foundation” which acquires 11 Pan India NGOs in a year to help them in various aspects like technology, marketing, funding, etc. to positively impact the lives of a larger number of marginalized people in India.
Apart from that he owns Da One global ventures to fund innovative sports-tech startups.
Read more: MS Dhoni’s Cricket Journey
