New Delhi: India opener Shikhar Dhawan is making merry in Sri Lanka. On Saturday, the 31-year-old hit a blistering century to help India post a healthy total of 329/6 on Day 1 of the third Test at Pallekele.
In the process, he became the second Indian opening batsman after Virender Sehwag to record three centuries in Tests in Sri Lanka. This is also the first instance that he has posted two centuries in a Test series – 190 at Galle and 119 at Pallekele.
But one aspect which makes an interesting reading is that, under Virat Kohl's captaincy, the left-handed batsman has scored 1033 in 14 Tests at an average of 49.19, including four hundreds and a fifty.
Dhawan is considered a surplus to the requirement in the opening position for India. He was lucky to have even got the call after injuries to Murali Vijay.
But he has justified captain's trust by scoring heavily for the team.
For the record, Dhawan has recorded six hundreds, with five of those coming in overseas Tests. Apart from his three centuries against Sri Lanka, he has posted a hundred each against Australia, Bangladesh and New Zealand.
After making his India debut in an ODI match against Australia at Visakhapatnam in October 2010, Dhawan as so far played 25 Tests, 86 ODIs and 23 T20Is, scoring 1703, 3589 and 439 runs respectively.
India have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series.
