From a second-ball duck on his India debut in an ODI against Australia in 2010 to forming one of India’s most formidable opening partnerships with Rohit Sharma and becoming India’s man of the moment in ICC tournaments, Dhawan has had a successful career in the India jersey.Here’s a look at the highlights of Dhawan’s career, which includes a yet-to-be-broken record he made on his Test debut.
– Dhawan took 85 balls to reach his maiden hundred in Tests — the quickest by a batter on Test debut. He ended up with 187 off just 174 balls against Australia in Mohali in 2013.
– Dhawan’s strike rate of 107.47 remains a record for any batsman during a century on debut in Tests.
– His 187 is the highest on Test debut by an Indian batsman.
– The left-handed opener was associated in a stand of 289 with Murali Vijay against Australia in Mohali in 2013, which remains a record for the opening wicket in Tests involving India and Australia.
– He scored 126 runs between lunch and tea at Galle during his career-best score of 190 vs Sri Lanka in 2017 — the most by an Indian batsman between lunch and tea in Tests.
– The 38-year-old is one of the eight batsmen to record 5000-plus runs, 40-plus average at a strike rate of 90-plus in ODIs.
– His best year in terms of run-aggregate in ODIs was 2013, when he scored 1162 at an average of 50.52, including five hundreds and four fifties, in 25 innings in 2013.
– Dhawan remains the only Indian player to post three hundreds in ODIs at The Oval — one each against West Indies in 2013, Sri Lanka in 2017 and vs Australia in 2019.
– He hit 768 fours in 221 innings — the most by a batter in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
– His 6769 runs is the second highest run-aggregate in the history of the IPL behind Virat Kohli’s tally of 8004 runs.
– Dhawan aggregated 400-plus runs in an IPL season nine times — his best season being 2020-21, when he scored 618 runs at an average of 44.14, including two hundreds and four fifties, in 17 innings. Kohli has managed 400-plus runs in an IPL season the most times (10).
– Among the seven batsmen with 600 runs or more in the ICC Champions Trophy, Dhawan’s average of 77.88 is the highest.
– He is one of the four batsmen to have recorded three hundreds in the ICC Champions Trophy — the other three being Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly and Herschelle Gibbs.
(Stats and trivia courtesy: Rajesh Kumar)