Mumbai: Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma formed one of India’s most formidable opening partnerships.
The left-right combination scored 5,148 runs in partnership in ODIs – fourth highest among all pairs and second only to table-toppers Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar (6,609).
Not only on the field, Shikhar and Rohit had a wonderful rapport off it too.
The 39-year-old Shikhar, known to be a fearless man who lives life to the fullest, made a sensational revelation from his early playing days.
Recalling the India A tour to Australia in 2006, Dhawan narrated how he used to ‘smuggle’ his girlfriend to a hotel room that he shared with Rohit.
The former India opener up about the reaction of Rohit, who has retired from T20Is and Test cricket, and how the news spread in the team.
“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’,” Dhawan wrote in his autobiography — ‘The One : Cricket, My Life and More’ – which offers an unfiltered account of his life.
“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 (not that girlfriend’s real name) 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?’
“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,” Sportstar quoted from the book.
“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,” Shikhar expressed.
Shikhar played 34 Tests, 167 ODIs and 68 T20Is for Team India.
The 50-over format brought the best in him, as he aggregated 6,793 runs at an impressive average of 44.11, hitting 17 hundreds and 39 fifties.
In Tests, Shikhar made 2,315 runs at an average of 40.61, with 7 centuries and 5 half-centuries.
