There is sad news which has taken cricket fraternity by storm as swashbuckling all rounders Hardik and Krunal Pandya ‘s father passed away after suffering cardiac arrest on Saturday. Krunal Pandya who is leading the Baroda side for the ongoing Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy has left the team’s bio secure bubble to attend the last rites of his father.
Where his brother Hardik Pandya was not part of Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy and was preparing for India’s home campaign against England that starts in the month of February.
As Krunal has pulled out of the T20 league after playing three matches for his home side and made sure that his team remains at the top of the points table. Being placed in Elite Group C, Baroda started with three wins on the trot and has 12 points along with an incredible net run rate of 1.171.
Their opening game against Uttarakhand was a close affair as they registered a victory against them by five runs. It was due to Krunal all round performance which ensures that Baroda crosses the line. He scored 76 runs and also picked two wickets in that close encounter.
However in the second and third match against Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Baroda clinched victories by four and nine wickets respectively. As skipper Krunal didn’t get much opportunity with the bat in last two games but he took one wickets each in both games.
It will be interesting to see that who will take up the leadership role in his absence for Baroda in the upcoming matches of Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy.
As far as Krunal is concerned, he was recently involved in an alleged spat with Deepak Hooda, who left the team hotel. Later BCA was unhappy with response of the later and informed about his actions to BCCI.
