Daughters XI
What a coincidence! Most players in the Indian cricket line-up for the ICC World Test Championship have been blessed with baby girls.
Almost each one of the present-day Indian cricketer has been blessed with a daughter. In fact, seven out of the eleven-member team that played in the first Test (against South Africa) of the ICC World Test Championship at Visakhapatnam, including Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravinder Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami and Ajinkya Rahane, are fathers to little girls.
Rahane is the last entrant in the list. However, he was unable to be with his wife Radhika at the time of delivery — she gave a birth to a daughter in (Mulund) Mumbai on Saturday — as he was playing the test in Vizag. How cool it would be if these first generation cricketers’ daughters pursued interest in cricket and played for Team India’s women team in future!
Speaking exclusively to us, Madhukar, Rahane’s dad, chuckled at us wondering of the possibility of these little girls growing up to play for the country. “Yes, these second-generation cricketers can make India’s women team,” he said, adding, “We have not yet named the baby.”