Shikhar Dhawan has never been the one to blend in. With his explosive batting, twirling mustache, and signature ‘thigh-five’ celebrations, he has always been as much a performer as a player. A natural entertainer, he left behind snapshots of carefree aggression that his fans don’t seem to forget. Yet when it comes to telling his own story, the magic doesn’t quite translate.
His book The One: Cricket, My Life and More, co-authored with Chandresh Narayanan and Namita Kala, fails to impress. It follows a predictable chronology, beginning with his early life in Delhi’s Vikaspuri, his selection for the Indian team, and moving on to exploring his world beyond the 22 yards of the cricket pitch. Even as it attempts to mirror his journey on and off the field, it reads less like a flashy T20 innings and more like a long, forgettable Test match.
The book opens with Dhawan’s childhood in Vikaspuri, where he paints himself as a mischievous boy with a restless energy, soon to be tamed by cricket. Bursting firecrackers in neighbours’ letterboxes, tales from his under-16 and under-19 trials, and even accounts of off-field skirmishes are shared with a casual tone. While these stories are meant to reveal his playful side, they rarely rise above the ordinary and hold the reader’s attention.