While there was excitement in the Indian cricket community across the nation over the return of the Ranji Trophy after a gap of almost two years, it turned into a moment of grief for Baroda batter Vishnu Solanki; who lost his newborn daughter shortly after her birth.
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, Solanki received the news of him being blessed with a baby girl while he was in Cuttack with his Baroda teammates on February 11. However, she passed away within 24 hours and Solanki left the camp and flew back home to attend the funeral.
This forced the 29-year-old batter to miss Baroda’s opening game of India’s premier first-class competition against Bengal. However, he re-joined the Baroda team in Cuttack just days after leaving and made a comeback in their second game of the competition against Chandigarh at the Vikas Cricket Ground.Solanki marked his comeback to red-ball cricket and the cricket field after the tragic incident with an emotional ton on Day 2 of the match. At Stumps on Friday, Solanki was unbeaten at the crease with a score of 103. Baroda were 398/7 at the end of play with a massive lead of 230 runs .
Saurashtra wicket-keeper batter Sheldon Jackson took to Twitter to lavish praise on Solanki and saluted his effort saying, “What a player . Has to be the toughest player i have known. A big salute to vishnu and his family by no means this is easy🙏 wish you many more hundreds and alot of success”
Talking about Solanki’s cricket career; he has played 24 first-class games, 39 List A games, and 46 T20s for Baroda. He rose to the limelight in last year’s Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy where he hit 4,6, and 4 of the last three balls against Haryana to life his team to an incredible victory.
