Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian cricketer. Being a left-handed opening batsman and occasional captain of the India national cricket team, he captains Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and plays for Delhi in first-class cricket. At the 2013 Champions Trophy, 2015 World Cup, and 2017 Champions Trophy, Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for India. He also became the first player in the history of IPL to score two back-to-back centuries. He was awarded the 'Player of the Tournament' for his exploits in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

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.

In August 2013, Dhawan 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, Dhawan became the sixth batsman, and the first for India, to score a century before lunch on day one of a Test.