 Dhawan first played for Delhi Under-16s in the 1999/00 Vijay Merchant Trophy and was the leading run-scorer of the 2000/01 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Delhi finished runners-up.He scored 755 runs from 9 innings at an average of 83.88 with two hundreds and a top score of 199.He was selected in the North Zone Under-16s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy in February 2001.