In his recently published biography, The One: Cricket, My Life and More, former India opener Shikhar Dhawan shared a previously untold tale of his first encounter with former captain MS Dhoni. Dhawan disclosed that he met the famous skipper as he walked into the Indian dressing room during his eagerly anticipated ODI debut series against Australia in 2010.
Later in 2013, while still playing for Dhoni, he made his Test debut, scoring a remarkable 187 against Australia. However, he was eventually called up by India for a three-match ODI series in October 2010. According to Dhawan, the then-skipper’s recognisable long hair and broad smile made him like a movie star.
“His long hair and effortless smile made him look like a movie star, so I wanted to cast him in a Bollywood film.” “I want to play for India and I want to make you a Bollywood hero!” I blurted out as we were discussing my motive. In the novel, Dhawan writes, “He threw back his head and laughed.”
“I had trouble sleeping the entire night,” Dhawan said of his debut game.
Additionally, the 39-year-old talked candidly about his first game, which was in the first ODI in Kochi and washed out. Notably, Dhawan was only able to play in the second game of the series at Margao before walking off after recording a two-ball duck. The third game of the series was also rained out.
“I had so much anxious energy building up inside of me before the first match in Kochi that I was unable to sleep the entire night. However, it was pouring rain when I woke up, and all of my aspirations were dashed. That day, nothing could be done,” Dhawan says.
But under MS Dhoni, Dhawan went on to become the leading scorer in India’s Champions Trophy victory in 2013.
He has scored 2315 runs in 34 Test matches for India. In addition, he participated in 68 T20 games (1759 runs) and 167 ODIs (6793 runs).
When he made his debut for India, social media was just getting started, therefore there was a lot less criticism than there is now, the former cricket player said.
Social media was still in its infancy and cricket players were not as closely watched when I was attempting to make my debut for India. However, print and broadcast media were doing quite well. Individual cricket performances and team selections were talked about endlessly and had attracted enough national attention. However, narratives took a lot longer to shift back then than they do now, when social media can quickly turn cricket players from “hero” to “zero,” he said.
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