Team India players wore black armbands in their final game of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup against Namibia to pay tribute to the legendary coach Tarak Sinha, who lost the battle to cancer and passed away on Saturday, November 6.
Several players working under Tarak Sinha have gone on to represent India across generations and made their county proud. From former cricketers, Surinder Khanna, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Aakash Chopra, Sanjeev Sharma, Anjum Chopra, Atul Wassa to current ones in Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant, all have been coached by Sinha.
The entire Indian cricketing fraternity and senior journalists mounted his death. Rishabh Pant, in particular, was devastated by the news.
Taking to Twitter Pant wrote, "My mentor, coach, motivator, my biggest critic and my greatest fan. You took care of me like your son, I am devastated. You will always be with me whenever I walk out onto the field. My heartfelt condolences and prayers. May your soul rest in peace, Tarak sir."
Former India opener Virender Sehwag too paid his respect for 'Ustad Ji' as he was popularly known in the Delhi Cricket circuit.
"Feel a lot of pain on the demise of passing away of Ustaad ji #TarakSinha. He was one of the rare coaches who gave India more than a dozen Test Cricketers & the values he inculcated in his students helped Indian cricket immensely. Condolences to his family and students," Sehwag wrote.
As for the game, Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bowl first. India made one change to their line-up bringing in leg-spinner Rahul Chahar in place of Varun Chakravarthy.
India Playing XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami
Namibia Playing XI: Stephan Baard, Michael Van Lingen, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (c), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Zane Green (wk), Jan Frylinck, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz
