There were quite a few interesting talks across social media last week.
Firstly, Protea cricketer, Faf du Plessis announced his retirement from Test cricket. The 36-year-old made his Test debut against Australia back in 2012 and since then played 69 matches, aggregating 4163 runs at an average of 40.03, including 10 hundreds and 21 fifties. He last donned the whites in the 2-match home Test series against Sri Lanka, which South Africa won by clean sweep. His retirement coincided with former South African cricketer AB de Villiers’ birthday, who turned 37 on February 17.
The news surrounding IPL 2020 auctions dominated social media for a major portion. Some of the steals from the auction include Fabian Allen (Rs 75 lakhs to Punjab Kings), Umesh Yadav (Rs 1 crore to Delhi Capitals), and Adam Milne (Rs 3.2 crore to Mumbai Indians) to name a few.
Among the most expensive bids from this year’s auction include – Chris Morris (Rs 16.25 crore to Rajasthan Royals), Kyle Jamieson (Rs 15 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Glenn Maxwell (Rs 14.25 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore).
There were a few surprise picks too. South African all-rounder Marco Jansen (Rs 20 lakh to Mumbai Indians), Shahrukh Khan (Rs 5.25 crores to Punjab Kings) and Riley Meredith (Rs 8 crores to Punjab Kings) got the social media frenzy post their selections.
In the international arena, Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav shared some of the glimpses from India’s training sessions ahead of the 3rd Test of the 4-match series against England. India managed to level the series 1-1 in the 2nd Test at Chepauk, and the upcoming contest being a ‘Pink-ball’ Test has already got the fans on their toes.
Lastly on the social media wrap, Varun Chakravarthy expressed his gratitude for being picked in India’s squad for the upcoming 5-match T20Is against England. The leg-spinner was initially picked to debut on the Australia tour.
Since Chakravarthy was nursing an injury, he was then replaced by pacer T Natarajan. Alongside the Tamil Nadu cricketer, the likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Rahul Tewatia have received maiden call-ups for their international debut.
Here’s the social media wrap from last week’s cricketing actions –
