Shikhar Dhawan, a former India opener, just released his biography, The One: Cricket, My Life, and More, in which he told a previously unknown account of his first encounter with former captain MS Dhoni. Dhawan claimed that the incident occurred during his much-anticipated ODI debut series against Australia in 2010, when he entered the Indian dressing room and met the famous captain.

His Test debut came later in 2013, also under Dhoni’s guidance, when he struck a record 187 against Australia. But, in October 2010, he was eventually called up by India for a three-match ODI series. Dhawan noted that the then-skipper had the appearance of a movie star, with his distinctive long hair and huge smile.

“I wanted to cast him in a Bollywood film; he looked like a movie star with his long hair and easy smile. We were discussing my motivation when I suddenly blurted out, ‘I want to play for India and make you a Bollywood superstar!’ “He threw back his head and laughed,” Dhawan writes in his autobiography.

‘I could not sleep the whole night,’ Shikhar Dhawan recalls his maiden game.

The 39-year-old also spoke about his debut in the first ODI in Kochi, which got wiped out. Notably, the third game of the series at Margao was also washed out, with Dhawan allowed to play just in the second match and walk back after recording a two-ball duck.

“I couldn’t sleep the night before the first match in Kochi due to intense nervousness…” However, when I awoke in the morning, it was pouring rain, and all of my aspirations were dashed. Dhawan writes, “No action was possible that day.”

However, Dhawan went on to score the most runs in India’s 2013 Champions Trophy victory under Dhoni.

He has played 34 Tests for India and scored 2315 runs. He also played 167 One-Day Internationals (6793 runs) and 68 Twenty20 matches (1759 runs).

The former cricketer noted that when he made his debut for India, social media was in its infancy, resulting in considerably less criticism than it is today.

“When I was trying to break into the Indian team, social media was still in its early stages, and cricketers faced far less scrutiny. However, other media platforms, including print and broadcast, were booming. Team selections and individual cricket performances were widely discussed throughout the country. However, unlike now, when social media can quickly shift cricketers from ‘hero’ to ‘nothing’, narratives took much longer to alter back then,” he concluded.