'I was in love': Shikhar Dhawan reveals 'smuggling tall brunette' to hotel in Australia, leaving Rohit Sharma annoyed

Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma (AP Photo)

Former Indian opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan revealed shocking details about his personal life that go all the way back to 2006. The former India batter, known as "Mr ICC" talked about how he fell deeply in love with a girl during the 2006 India A series against Australia in his memoir "The One: Cricket, My Life and More". He talked about how he would "smuggle" the female into the hotel room he and Rohit Sharma shared.

Rohit's response to the same was also disclosed by Dhawan, who said that his relationship with the woman became a topic of conversation among the team members during the Australian tour.

"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," the excerpt reads, as per Sportstar.

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Dhawan continued that after a brief conversation, he and the girl exchanged phone numbers. He added that he got along well with Robin Singh, the India A coach at the time, who had no issues.

"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," Dhawan wrote.

Dhawan, who played in more than 200 international matches for India, claimed that soon after, to Rohit's dismay, he began "smuggling" the woman to his hotel room.

"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.’ 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?’," added Dhawan.

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Dhawan, who announced his retirement from international cricket in August 2024, claimed that the word of his girlfriend in Australia quickly went around the team after the selector spotted them together in a hotel lobby. Additionally, Dhawan also admitted that his performance suffered during the Australian tour due to his likely distracted state.

"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," wrote Dhawan.

"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," he added.

Dhawan played 34 Test matches, 68 T20I matches, and 167 ODI matches for India. He scored 6793 runs at an average of 44.11 in the 50-over format, which he dominated the most out of the three. He excelled in the ICC events, and his performances in the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy are well-known. He even had a good start to the 2019 ODI World Cup, but was ruled out of the tournament after the match against Australia.