Shikhar Dhawan century list

Shikhar Dhawan’s Test centuries

Shikhar Dhawan has been a straightforward replacement for Virender Sehwag, who is also from Delhi and whose ouster from the Indian Test team gave Dhawan his break, in March 2013. Though a like-for-like replacement, comparisons cannot be drawn between the Nawab of Najafgarh and Gabbar.

Dhawan has done well at the Test level, despite being a little inconsistent. Good scores have often been followed by a series of low scores and this southpaw has tended to score heavily in the sub-continent. He has six Test centuries till date and his lowest century score of 115 is an indication of his habit to score big hundreds. Shikhar Dhawan announced his arrival in Test cricket with a breathtaking century on debut, against the visiting Australia at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, where he made 187 off 174 balls and showed how dangerous a batsman he can be. He holds the record for the fastest Test hundred by a debutant, having taken just 85 balls to score this ton.

Only one of Dhawan’s half-a-dozen centuries in Test cricket has come outside the sub-continent, in January 2014 at the Eden Park in Auckland, where, with India chasing 407 for victory, he held the innings together and his knock of 115 gave the team and the fans back home real belief of achieving this target. However, Virat Kohli and Dhawan fell in quick succession and thereafter the rest of the batsmen fell cheaply, causing India to lose this Test match by 40 runs.

Sri Lanka have been Dhawan’s favourite opponent in Test cricket, with his scoring three centuries and his highest Test score (190) also coming against them. On average, he scores a century every seven innings.

Shikhar Dhawan ODI centuries list

He has tasted far more success in One-Day International cricket than in the other two formats. His batting average is higher and he has also been far more consistent. Six of Dhawan’s 17 ODI centuries—three in the 2013 and 2017 editions of the Champions Trophy, two in the Cricket World Cup 2015 and one in the 2019 Cricket World Cup—have come in ICC tournaments.

Team India have lost just thrice when Dhawan has made an ODI century and this Delhi left-hander took just 71 balls to bring up his 11th ODI century, which came against Sri Lanka and is his fastest ton till date. He is also the fourth-fastest to 14 ODI hundreds in terms of innings (105 innings) and the second-fastest Indian (behind Virat Kohli, 103 innings).

Related: Indian Premier League tons