Be it an autograph, a selfie, or a simple wave of the hand, the Indian cricketers have been keeping the requests of the fans in the Caribbean islands right from the moment they arrived for the limited-overs tour. Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin and others have been spotted mingling with the fans multiple times during India’s tour of the West Indies. Fans have braved the rain and waited for hours in Trinidad even during India’s optional training sessions to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars. The scenes were quite similar in Saint Kitts after the second and the third T20I.
Among many fans waiting for autographs and selfies after the third T20I was a special guest. The Indian High Commissioner of India to Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda, St.Kitts & Nevis Dr KJ Srinavas waited for an hour to meet Hardik Pandya after the match at Warner Park.
“I just met him as a friend. I’ve had great conversations with Hardik for the last few days. I was asking him about his diet plans, how he keeps fit… The conversation began like that and it sort of kept flowing,” he told Vimal Kumar.
Hardik spent quality time with Dr Srinavas and his family. After Hardik, India al-rounder Deepak Hooda was seen spending some time with them.
“Cricket is a religion in India as well as in the West Indies. This series was one of the expected series for a long time. In 2019 when they were here, they did not visit St Kitts and now they are here. Since I am the Indian High Commissioner to this region, I also hosted the cricketers for a reception. We had great love and affection. I saw the affection the Indian cricketers have for the West Indies people and vice-versa,” Dr Srinavas added.
India are leading the five-match series 2-1. Both teams have now travelled to Florida, USA for the final two matches of the series. There were a few concerns regarding visas for a number of team members including India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid but they sorted and the matches on August 6 and 7 are slated to go on as per schedule.
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