Melbourne: As Shikhar Dhawan went on scoring his first century in the World Cup, there was a question doing the rounds in the circuit. What was the reason behind the moustache twirling cricketer’s success?
A successful man has to have a lady backing him and so the lady luck behind Shikhar surfaced into focus for the cricket world. As soon as the match was won by India, stories of how they met, how it all worked around, their love story, all the angles involved were eagerly and thoroughly discussed on the social media.
Back in 2004 he had been the leading run-scorer at an Under-19 World Cup. After that, he spent more than half a decade with no real progress. There would be the odd sparkling innings for Delhi but as the years passed, those that watched him wondered how badly he wanted to make the step up.Â
Those younger than him – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma being the most prominent names – established themselves in the Indian side even as he remained on the fringes.
Then, Dhawan came across the Melbourne-based Ayesha Mukherjee, of British-Bengali origin, on Harbhajan Singh’s Facebook friends’ list.
On an impulse he sent her a friend request. And, that’s how their love story started.
By late 2009 they were engaged. They married in 2012. A year later Dhawan destroyed Australia on his Test debut, carrying that form forward into the Champions Trophy, where he was player of the tournament.
Mukherjee, 12 years older and mother of two girls, sorted him out. A trained kickboxer, she helped Dhawan take on board the discipline and mental composure that marks the truly special from the also-rans.
She and Dhawan now have a baby boy as well. They both share a deep passion for tattoos, although he has more tattoos than she does. The cricketer also has the name of his wife tattooed on his wrist.
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