Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli and his wife, Anushka Sharma were on Monday, 11 January, blessed with a baby girl.
"We are thrilled to share with you that we have been blessed with a baby girl. Anushka and the baby are both healthy and we are feeling beyond blessed to start this new chapter of our lives. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time," he posted on social media.
While congratulatory messages for the new parents poured in on social media, there were a few excited members of the Indian team’s travelling party that celebrated the addition of a new baby girl to India’s youngest fan group.
‘One More Baby Girl’
The youngest addition to the Sharma-Kohli family is also the newest addition to the ‘girl gang’ of India’s men’s cricket team with most of the fathers in the squad having baby girls.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who helped India draw the SCG Test on Monday, is father to two baby girls. His wife, Prithi posted, ‘Congratulations. One more baby girl in the gang!’ when Virat announced the birth of his daughter on social media.
Virat’s predecessor MS Dhoni is father to Ziva, while India’s limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma too, has a daughter with his wife Ritika – Samaira. The two-year-old in fact, was born two years back during India’s last tour of Australia.
Indian Test skipper – in Virat’s absence – Ajinkya Rahane and his wife, Radhika, welcomed a baby girl last year and named her Arya. Arya and Radhika had travelled to the UAE to be with Ajinkya during the IPL and were also in Australia for the first half of the tour.
Cheteshwar Pujara too, has a baby girl and was joined by Ashwin and Rahane for a ‘father’s day out’ in November when the three had an off day together.
Virat, in fact, isn't the only Indian cricketer to be blessed with a child this year. His Team Indian team-mates Umesh Yadav and also T Natarajan welcomed a new addition to their families in the last few months. Natarajan, who played IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad, had a daughter during the tournament and is yet to meet his baby as he has been part of the Indian squad in Australia.
Umesh Yadav, who returned home to India last week due to an injury, also welcomed a baby girl on 1 January while he was in Australia.
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