From love in Darwin to glory in Melbourne: Excerpts from Shikhar Dhawan’s autobiography

Then came a tour to Australia with the India A squad in 2006. The moment I landed in Darwin, I noticed a beautiful woman in the immigration queue. She was a tall brunette with a blunt cut and sharp features. She looked divine. I looked at her and smiled; she smiled back. She wheeled her luggage trolley and walked over to the conveyor belt to collect her luggage. I did the same and stood next to her.

‘Hi! I’m Shikhar,’ I said, introducing myself.

‘Hello, I’m Ellen (not her real name),’ she said, thrusting her hand out.

‘Where are you from?’ I asked.

‘I am from England,’ she replied.

‘How long will you be here?’ I questioned.

‘For a year,’ she divulged.

‘A year!’ I exclaimed, astonished.

‘I’m on a one-year vacation,’ she laughed.

By the time our conversation was over, we had exchanged phone numbers and email ids.

Once I reached the hotel, I emailed her. She responded. I invited her to a party. She accepted, and I was on cloud nine. Robin Singh was the India A coach on that Australia tour, and I had often gone for parties with him in the past. We were more like friends than player and coach.

My plan to meet up with this Englishwoman started taking shape, and we started partying regularly during that tour. She was very beautiful, and suddenly I was in love again!

I thought to myself, ‘She is the one for me, and I am going to marry her.’

I started with a half-century in a practice game, and my tour was progressing well. After every game, I would go over to meet up with Ellen and I soon started smuggling her into my hotel room which I was sharing with Rohit Sharma.

Now and then, he would complain in Hindi. ‘Will you let me sleep?’

Ellen obviously did not understand what he was saying. But we would try to be quiet after that. I had taken to sleeping for around seven hours at the time and my focus started wavering. My performances on the field began to plummet.

One evening, when I headed for dinner with Ellen, news of her presence spread like wildfire throughout the entire squad. A senior national selector, who was on tour with us, spotted us walking in the lobby with our hands linked. It didn’t even occur to me that I should let go of her hand, because to me, we were committing no crime. There was a good chance that if I had performed consistently on that Australia tour, I would have made it to the senior Indian side, but my performance kept dipping.

When I returned from Australia in 2006, I told my mother that I have found my better half. She started crying. ‘Why is it that whenever you go out on a tour, you bring a girl with you?’ she complained. She created quite a scene but at that point, it had no impact on me.

‘She’ll be coming here in a couple of months,’ I informed my parents. ‘I think you should know.’

By now, my parents were in panic and the clan was divided. Half of them were angry and some of my relatives stopped talking to me. One of my aunts even told me to stop visiting her house, because she feared that I would be a bad influence on her kids. I was quite hurt.

But Dheeru Mama and his wife stood by me. ‘You can go and live with the girl in our Janakpuri apartment,’ he offered. ‘It’s lying empty.’

Ellen came over three months later to celebrate her birthday with me. We lived together in my uncle’s apartment for about twenty-five days. My family was still not ready to meet her. The fact that my girlfriend and I were living in together was a shock to them. But they were fast getting used to my headstrong ways. They knew that if I decided on a course, I would follow through, no matter what.

The experience provided me with a big learning: never introduce all your girlfriends to your family.

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Back to Australia 2014–15, and we ended up losing another away Test series, by a 0–2 margin. But we had shown a bit more spunk than in England, which was a step up for us as a squad.

I was not getting any runs in the Test series. We also played a tri-series with England as the third team, apart from Australia the host. Even in the tri-series, I struggled. But full credit to Dhoni Bhai that he still backed me.

Right after this tri-series, it was time for the 2015 ODI World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. This was the first ODI showpiece event Down Under since 1992, so there was a lot of expectation and comparisons. The bounce in Australia naturally suited my game, whereas New Zealand provided a bit more swing for the bowlers.

Before the World Cup, there was a small break which I utilized by visiting a retreat centre at the Blue Mountains in Sydney run by The Brahma Kumaris for a day. Later in my life, this centre and especially their key person, Shivani Didi, ended up becoming an integral part of my life. When I came back, Dhoni Bhai asked me: ‘What did you do there?’

I told him: ‘I just relaxed, did meditation. It was a good feeling.’ That’s the reason I had gone for this retreat.

The pitches were genuinely very good, with only the odd pitch in New Zealand aiding the bowlers. Overall, there were some good contests supplemented by good pitches. My favourite shots in most ICC ODI events were the cut and pull, thanks to the pitches that were provided for the games.

India’s opening game of that World Cup was against Pakistan in Adelaide. I remember, when I was stepping out to bat in this opening encounter, some members of the crowd taunted me saying that I will not get more than 5–10 runs. I used the taunts to motivate myself. Before I got run out, I had scored 73 and put on 129 with Virat for the second wicket. I hadn’t been in good form in the build-up, but this knock really helped me regain my confidence.

When I returned after being dismissed, the same members of the crowd who had taunted me, started clapping for me. I remember this incident not just for the change in fortune but also for the way Dhoni Bhai backed me a lot, because that really changed my mindset.

Before the game against Pakistan, I had a special preparation to play, thanks to the genius of our batting coach Sanjay Bangar. We were to play Mohammed Irfan, the seven foot one inch, left-arm fast bowler. This was going to be a challenge on the bouncy Australian tracks. Sanjay Bhai came up with a plan at the nets where he stood up on a stool and threw down balls to help me prep up for the giant Irfan. And boy did it work!

From the knock against Pakistan, I gained confidence, and I took off against South Africa. It was a beautiful feeling knowing that 95,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) were acknowledging my hundred against South Africa. I had a good partnership with Ajinkya in the World Cup game, after Rohit and Virat fell quickly. In that tournament, our squad was ticking all the boxes, till we fell to Australia in the semi-final.

I was the highest run-getter for India in the 2015 World Cup, but unfortunately, after having a tremendous run throughout the event, we lost in the semi-final. Rohit and I did start well, but it wasn’t enough. It was time to move on!