Gujarat Titans' IPL title victory: Siblings who played cricket from Vadodara

VADODARA: When Hardik Pandya led

Gujarat Titans

to their maiden IPL title on Sunday, his brother Krunal, who played for Lucknow Super Giants, too was beaming with pride. The Vadodara siblings have carved a special place in the national team with their stellar performance.

When it comes to pairs of siblings who made place in the hearts of

cricket

fans across the world, Aussie legends Steve and Mark Waugh are often the most talked about. But few know that besides Pandya brothers, Vadodara provided a perfect ground to hone cricketing skills of at least five other pairs of brothers over the last many years.

Irfan and Yusuf Pathan were among the first pair of cricketing brothers to earn international fame. They were trained at their coach Mehendi Sheikh’s club and then got into the Baroda Ranji team as well. While Irfan made his first class debut in 2000, Yusuf got into the Ranji squad in 2001.

The brothers also played for India in the T20 World Cup in 2007 and 2009. The Pathans have said that they were always comfortable playing together as they knew each other’s game.

Hardik got into the Baroda Ranji squad in 2013 and then played for India in 2016. Krunal followed in his footsteps and got into the Indian team in 2018.

Kedar Devdhar and his brother Mrunal have played together for Baroda. Kedar, who has even captained Baroda team, has said that they played together at club-level too and share a very good bond both on-field as well as off-the-field.

In 2017, a pair of twin brothers from Vadodara played together in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy. In fact, Saurin Thakkar and Smit Thakkar look so similar that the opponent teams used to get confused when either of them walked in to bat. While 23-year-old Saurin plays in Under-25, Smit is in Under-23 team of Baroda. “We enjoy our outings together on the field,” Saurin told TOI.

Former India cricketer Kiran More, a Barodian, said, “It’s a unique phenomenon that so many siblings have played for Baroda. I think it’s more about the sporting culture of this city. When one sibling began playing cricket, the other too got drawn into it. Plus, they got more opportunities due to the club culture.”

India cricketer Deepak Hooda and his brother Ashish Hooda too used to play cricket in Vadodara before Ashish quit the sport about five years ago. Deepak went on to play for Baroda Ranji team but he quit the association and shifted to Rajasthan.

India cricketer Anshuman Gaekwad’s sons Shatrunjay and Aniruddha started playing club cricket together in the 1990s. The siblings also played in the MS University team together but Aniruddha decided to focus on his academics. Shatrunjay, on the other hand, pursued cricket and played for the Baroda Ranji team.

“It was also easier for siblings to travel together in this small city and play cricket together,” More told TOI.

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