Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra

Team India players recently arrived in the national capital following their emphatic seven wickets victory against South Africa in the second ODI in Ranchi. Skipper Shikhar Dhawan (fondly known as Gabbar by fans), who hails from Delhi, treated some of his teammates- Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav and Avesh Khan to a lavish dinner at a city hotel.

The aggressive south-paw seemed to be in a relaxed mood ahead of the all-important third and final encounter against South Africa in his home city of Delhi on Tuesday. The three-match series is currently level at 1-1 and the winner of the third ODI at the Arun Jaitley stadium will walk away with the series.

Dhawan posted a picture of the dinner party on his Instagram account and captioned it, “Dinner time with boys #TeamBonding”.

Why Dhawan is known as Gabbar?

The reason behind Dhawan getting the name ‘Gabbar’ is quite interesting. The attacking southpaw got this name much before he started playing for the Men in Blue. Dhawan himself had shared the incident in an earlier interview. 

The name was given to him by his Ranji coach Vijay Dahiya. Dhawan who used to field at silly point had a peculiar habit of cheering his teammates while fielding. He used to stand at silly point in Ranji matches. When the opposing team had a good partnership his team would get a little down and to cheer them Dhawan used to shout ‘Bahut Yarana Lagtha Hai’. It was a famous dialogue of Gabbar Singh from the movie Sholay. People forgot the incident but he got the nickname ‘Gabbar’. Moreover, his tight mustache associates him with Gabbar as he has a dashing personality. His fearless batting and typical celebration after taking a catch while fielding have also made the name quite apt.
 

scrollToTop