As the Virat Kohli-led Indian team took the field on day one of the fourth Test against England at the Oval on September 2nd, they were seen sporting black arm bands on their sleeve. This was to pay tribute to the late Mumbai cricketer and legendary coach Vasudev (Vasoo) Paranjape.
Vasoo Paranjape, who played a handful of First-Class matches for Mumbai from 1956-1970, went onto become one of the best coaches in domestic cricket and worked on enhancing the skills of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma amongst others.
Equipped with technical nuances, he used his man-management skills to great effect. Paranjape was appointed Director of Coaching in the '80s by the board and was a head coach of camps for junior cricketers. He was also among the first set of coaches in the National Cricket Academy when it was instated in 2000.
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BCCI shared a photo of the Indian team players wearing the black armbands on Twitter with the caption reading, “The Indian Cricket Team is sporting black armbands today to honour the demise of Shri Vasudev Paranjape.”
Meanwhile, India was asked to bat first on a green pitch by England captain Joe Root who won the toss. India made two changes to their playing XI, bringing in Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur for Mohammad Shami and Ishant Sharma.
England also made two changes, bringing in Ollie Pope for Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes for Sam Curran.
(ANI inputs)
