In a piece of unfortunate news, Rajasthan Royals pacer Chetan Sakariya’s father Kanjibhai passed away due to COVID-19 on Sunday at a private hospital in Gujarat Bhavnagar. After the postponement of the Indian Premier League 2021 due to the deadly second wave of Coronavirus, the rookie pacer visited his father at the hospital. His father, a tempo driver, was reportedly on ventilator support as his health deteriorated after testing positive for COVID-19. Left-arm fast bowler Sakariya, who made his maiden appearance in IPL 2021, had lost his brother in January this year.
“It pains us so much to confirm that Mr Kanjibhai Sakariya lost his battle with Covid-19 earlier today. We’re in touch with Chetan and will provide all possible support to him and his family in this difficult time,” Sakariya’s franchise Rajasthan tweeted on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Sakariya had played seven matches for Rajasthan this season and returned seven wickets at an economy rate of 8.22 runs per over. He was playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy at the time his brother passed away. Sakariya’s family didn’t inform him about the tragic news until after the tournament.
Sakariya is another cricketer to have lost a family member to COVID-19 after India Women’s cricket team all-rounder Veda Krishnamurthy. Sge lost her sister and her mother due to the virus.
Krishnamurthy lost her sister on Wednesday while her mother had passed away last month.
The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic has infected millions of people, and the number of Coronavirus-positive cases has been increasing in the country at an alarming rate.
India had reported 4,03,738 new COVID-19 cases and over 4000 related deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the cumulative national tally of the infection went up to 2,22,96,414 the union health ministry informed on Sunday morning.