Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan has recently shared a lot about his relationships to friendships, to all the controversies surrounding him, be it off or on the field, in his book, “The One: Cricket, My Life and More”. Considered as one of the best Indian openers, Dhawan played 34 Tests for India, scoring 2315 runs, 167 ODIs (6793 runs) and 68 T20 matches (1759 runs) as well.
According to Sachin Sharma, publisher at HarperCollins India, “Shikhar Dhawan has lived an incredible life both on and off the field. In this unputdownable memoir, Shikhar has opened up about his life, cricket, relationships, and every curveball that he faced and emerged stronger.”
“When I was trying to break into the Indian side, social media was still nascent and cricketers were under a lot less scrutiny. But other media platforms – print and broadcast – were thriving,” he wrote in the book. “Team selections and individual cricket performances were discussed threadbare and had gained sufficient audience in the country. However, unlike the current times in which social media can transform cricketers from ‘hero’ to ‘zero’ almost overnight, narratives took a lot longer to change back in those days.”
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Shikhar Dhawan also recalled the moment when he first saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former India captain.
“I wanted to cast him in a Bollywood movie; he looked like a film star with that long hair and easy smile. We were having a chat about my motivation when I suddenly blurted out, ‘I want to play for India and I want to make you a Bollywood hero!’ He threw back his head and laughed.”
However, he was chosen for the three ODIs, the first and third matches in Kochi and Margao were abandoned as well.
“Before the first match in Kochi, there was so much nervous energy bubbling inside me that I could not sleep the whole night… But when I got up in the morning, it was raining heavily, and all my hopes turned to nought. No action was possible that day. Then, just ahead of the second ODI at Vizag, I took a sleeping pill to soothe my nerves. I thought it was important to sleep well, and I was worried that my performance would suffer if I went through another round of insomnia as I had done on the eve of the first match,” he recalled.
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However, India won the toss and chose to field. The Aussies batted first and managed to post 289. Dhawan opened the batting with Murali Vijay but failed to contribute. In the very first over, he was bowled for a duck off the second ball by Clint McKay as well.
“I walked off from the crease with a smile pasted on my face, but inside, I was kicking myself hard. I had visualized myself playing dazzling shots and piling up a huge amount of runs for India for so long that I found it difficult to wrap the reality around my head,” Shikhar Dhawan concluded.
