Famous for his frankness and mercurial nature, erstwhile India cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has never shied away from living life the way he wants—on the field and off it. The charming ex-opener recently made a startling revelation regarding a personal anecdote from his cricketing young days.
Looking back at his 2006 India A tour of Australia, Dhawan spoke publicly for the first time about a romantic experience that played out on the tour. In an intimate passage from his autobiography, Dhawan explained how he fell in love and even snuck his girlfriend into the hotel room he was sharing with teammate Rohit Sharma.
"She was too beautiful, and all of a sudden I had fallen in love again! I said to myself, 'She is the one I want to marry,' " Dhawan said in his autobiography, as quoted by Sportstar.
He also explained how the romance flourished in the course of a winning beginning to the tour. "I began with a half-century in a practice match, and my tour was going nicely. After each match, I would walk over to meet with Ellen (not her actual name) and I quickly began sneaking her into my hotel room which I shared with Rohit Sharma. Occasionally, he would complain in Hindi. 'Will you let me sleep?'"
The tryst, however, quickly became the squad's gossip. "One night, as I set out for dinner with Ellen, word of her being there spread like wildfire in the entire squad. A top national selector, who was part of our tour party, saw us strolling into the lobby with our hands together," he reminisced.
"It never even crossed my mind that I should release her hand, because to me we were not doing anything wrong. There were chances if I had been consistent during that Australian tour that I might have gained a place in the senior Indian team, but my performance kept fluctuating."
Dhawan continued to play a successful international career as he played for India in 34 Tests, 167 ODIs, and 68 T20Is. In the 50-over format, he was most successful, scoring 6,793 runs at a breathtaking average of 44.11 with 17 hundreds and 39 fifties.
In Tests, Dhawan scored 2,315 runs at an average of 40.61 with seven hundreds and five half-centuries wearing whites.
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