India vs Australia: Why Indian team members are wearing black arm bands?

India vs Australia: The Indian team took the field for the series-deciding third ODI against Australia wearing black arm bands as a mark of respect for Bapu Nadkarni, who died earlier this week.

Members of the Indian cricket team on Sunday sported black arm bands to honour former all-rounder Bapu Nadkarni, who died earlier this week. Nadkarni was 86 and is survived by his wife and two daughters. He breathed his last on Friday. The Indian team took the field for the series-deciding third ODI against Australia wearing black arm bands as a mark of respect for Nadkarni. Nadkarni, a left-handed batsman and slow-left arm orthodox bowler, played 41 Tests in which he scored 1414 runs and grabbed 88 wickets with 6/43 as his best bowling figures.

Virat Kohli at the toss. (BCCI)

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Nadkarni was a Mumbai stalwart having played 191 first-class matches and taken 500 wickets and scored 8880 runs. The Nashik-born Nadkarni made his Test debut against New Zealand in Delhi in 1955 and played his last Test at Auckland against the same opponents in 1968 under MAK Pataudi’s captaincy.

He rose to fame after he bowled 21 successive maidens. His figures in that Madras (now Chennai) Test read 32-27-5-0.