When Shikhar Dhawan 'Smuggled' His British Girlfriend Into Room He Shared With Rohit Sharma: 'Will You...?’

Shikhar Dhawan, the former Indian opening batter, has shared an interesting insight about his personal life, tracing back to the year 2006.

In his memoir 'The One: Cricket, My Life and More', the player once hailed as 'Mr ICC' shared an anecdote from the India A tour of Australia, during which he developed strong feelings for a woman he met there.

Photo Credit: PTI

Dhawan admitted to "smuggling" the woman into the hotel room he was sharing with fellow cricketer Rohit Sharma - a situation that soon became a talking point within the squad.

"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 quoted by Sportstar.

According to Dhawan, the two exchanged pleasantries and soon swapped phone numbers and email addresses. He added that Robin Singh, then the India A coach, was on friendly terms with him and didn't object to his activities.

"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.

Having played more than 200 matches for India across formats, Dhawan admitted that he was soon head over heels for the woman, and began sneaking her into his hotel room. This, he noted, didn't go down well with his roommate Rohit Sharma.

"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?'," he added.

Dhawan went on to reveal that the affair soon became common knowledge within the team when a national selector spotted the two together in the hotel lobby.

"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," he wrote.

He also candidly acknowledged that the distraction affected his on-field performance - which may have cost him a place in the senior Indian side.

"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, who announced his retirement from international cricket in August 2024, represented India in 167 ODIs, 68 T20Is and 34 Tests. He was particularly prolific in the 50-over format, amassing 6,793 runs at an average of 44.11.

He built a reputation for stepping up during ICC events - especially the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy tournaments.

In the 2019 ODI World Cup, he started strong but had to withdraw from the tournament after sustaining an injury during the match against Australia.