Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien on Tuesday suggested his Rajya Sabha colleagues Raghav Chadha and Harbhajan Singh to put together a cricket team of Upper House and take on Lok Sabha team during the winter session of the Parliament. O'Brien said that Harbhajan, who retired from all forms of cricket last year, can lead the Rajya Sabha team, while putting his own name forward as a wicketkeeper.
The TMC leader was replying to a tweet from AAP MP Raghav Chadha who was at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali along with Harbhajan Singh to watch India's first game of 3-match T20 series against Australia.
“Had the pleasure of watching an exiciting game of cricket in Mohali, Punjab along with the great spinner and my colleague in Rajya Sabha @harbhajan_singh in whose name a stadium stand was inaugurated earlier today,” Chadha said in a tweet.
To this, O'Brien said, "Now let’s put together a Rajya Sabha cricket team. And take on the Lok Sabha in a cricket match during the winter session. I will keep wickets. Harbhajan skipper of the Rajya Sabha team."
He also asked Union sports minister Anurag Thakur, a Lok Sabha member, if he was ready to take up the challenge.
“Oye @ianuragthakur Accept the challenge?”
{{/usCountry}}“Oye @ianuragthakur Accept the challenge?”
{{/usCountry}}Australia defeated India by four wickets in the opening game of the three-match series with the help of blistering knocks from Matthew Wade and Cameron Green. Wade's unbeaten 45 off 21 guided the visitors to chase down India's mammoth 209 runs with four balls remaining. India dropped three catches and were left to rue their death-overs bowling.
At the post-match conference, Indian captain Rohit Sharma rued the missed on-field chances for the team's loss even after posting a humongous target of 209 runs.
"I don't think we bowled well. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn't take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but bowlers were not quite there," said Rohit.