In his autobiography, former Indian cricket player Shikhar Dhawan revealed details of a friendship he formed during the 2006 India A tour to Australia, as well as a personal narrative from the early years of his career.
Dhawan described in the book how he surreptitiously brought his fiancée into the hotel room he shared with colleague Rohit Sharma and how the squad eventually learned of their connection.
"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, quoted by Times of India.
Dhawan's tour got off to a good start on the field, but he acknowledged that as he spent more time with his fiancée, whom he calls Ellen (not her real name), his priorities changed.
“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 her 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?'" Dhawan recalled.
Their relationship became widely known within the squad after a senior national selector spotted the two together.
"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,” Dhawan added.
During his illustrious international career, Dhawan played for India in 34 Test matches, 167 One Day Internationals, and 68 Twenty20 Internationals. He amassed 6793 runs at an average of 44.11 in ODIs, with 39 fifties and 17 hundreds. He scored 2315 runs at an average of 40.61 in Test cricket, with five half-centuries and seven hundreds.
