Haha, so I bumped into Shikar Dhawan at the Wellington airport at around 4am
Its a long story why I am flying out of Wellington already (and at such an ungodly hour) - heading to Dunedin. Dhawan was heading to Melbourne.
I managed to have a good chat to him for around 10-15 minutes while we waited in the check-in queue. Needless to say during the conversation I omitted the fact that I've called him a **** countless times on the CW message boards
Firstly, he was a very nice guy. He was in front of me in the check-in queue, I asked him for a photo and after that just let him be and didn't disturb him, but he chose to start a conversation which was cool. Cliff notes of the convo:
- he was absolutely buggered after fielding for 2 days and said that getting up for a 6:30 am flight to Melbourne was rough
- admitted that he thought the test was going to be over in 3 days (found this interesting, even if he said it kind of lightheartedly, still shows that players do get complacent)
- he finds the amount of cricket he plays extremely exhausting, noting that he only has a few days off before Asia Cup, then T20 WC, then IPL, then a few more days off, then England series
- said nevertheless its a dream come true for him to play for India
- when asked if he finds it difficult to adjust to SA and NZ pitches, he said yes its very tough and takes time as the Indian pitches he is used to are completely different. Noted that its particularly tough to adjust when you haven't toured these countries before (other than A tours).
- mentioned that with the IPL, foreign players are getting used to Indian conditions (culture, pitches, environment etc.) whereas often young Indian players are not exposed to Aust, NZ, SA, Eng conditions, with the exception of A tours.
- said that the media and Indian fans have to give the team time, they are still learning how to play overseas and are inexperienced and have come close to winning in SA and NZ
- he absolutely loves New Zealand
- he also loves Australia, and prefers Melbourne to Sydney
Quite a funny way to end my NZ "test cricket" trip.
Oh and deadset, when I saw Dhawan in the queue the first thing I noticed him doing was twirling his friggin' moustache. WAFG - I'm gonna have to get around him now. May even need to start a fan club.