For Krunal Pandya the celebrations for his 30th birthday started a day before. It was an emotional day for the older Pandya sibling as he made his ODI debut for India and played a scintillating knock in the middle order, which helped the hosts post a match winning total against England.
Krunal's 26-ball half century on debut meant he was called in a for an interview in the innings break. The all-rounder couldn't speak beyond a few words as he broke down in a moment of emotion. Krunal and brother Hardik lost their father recently and emotions were running extremely high.
A day after his match-winning performance on debut, Krunal was wished by brother Hardik and the cricket fraternity for turning 30. Hardik shared an emotional message on Twitter along with throwback photos of the two.
"We're on this journey together bhai right from the start. The highs, the lows, I'm lucky to have you by my side. Happy birthday big bro," Hardik Pandya tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}"We're on this journey together bhai right from the start. The highs, the lows, I'm lucky to have you by my side. Happy birthday big bro," Hardik Pandya tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wrote: "Aggressive batsman, Effective bowler, Fine fielder. Here's wishing #TeamIndia all-rounder @krunalpandya24 a very happy birthday."
"Happy birthday @krunalpandya24! Congratulations on a dream debut Keep working hard and have a great year ahead!" former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh tweeted.
Highlighting the player's IPL career figures, Mumbai Indians also wished the cricketer. "5 years, 1,000 runs, 46 wickets. Our birthday boy will always be a CHAMPION!," the franchise tweeted.
Dinesh Karthik also extended birthday greetings to Krunal.
In the shortest format of the game, Krunal has represented India in 18 T20I games. From that, he has scored 121 runs and scalped 14 wickets. The second ODI between India and England will be played on Friday.
(With ANI inputs)