‘Loss of a loved one hurts’ – Sachin Tendulkar praises Nitish Rana and Mandeep Singh for playing amidst family tragedies

It wasn’t easy for Nitish Rana and Mandeep Singh. It wasn’t expected to be, on Saturday, October 24. Yet, they stepped up for their respective teams in the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL). The duo showed a lot of guts at a stage when a number of people would have gone into trauma and depression and would have taken a few days, if not weeks, or months to recover.

For Rana, it was his father-in-law Surinder Marwah, who passed away. Parking aside the personal tragedy, he turned up for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their match against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, Mandeep lost his beloved father, Hardev Singh, who was suffering from a prolonged illness.

The courage showed by Mandeep and Rana

Mandeep played for the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Interestingly, both players opened the batting for their respective teams and ended up on the winning side. In the meantime, former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar empathised with Rana and Mandeep, who both showed a lot of courage.

Sachin, very well, could understand, the pains of playing after losing a loved one. During the 1999 World Cup, the Master Blaster lost his father. But then, instead of letting the emotions get the better of him, he played against Kenya and smashed 140 runs. In fact, whenever he scored a century, the holder of 100 international tons used to look at the heavens, remembering his father.

He took to Twitter and wrote, “Loss of a loved one hurts, but what’s more heartbreaking is when one doesn’t get to say a final goodbye. Praying for @mandeeps12, @NitishRana_27 and their families to heal from this tragedy. Hats off for turning up today. Well played.”

Here’s Sachin Tendulkar’s tweet:

Loss of a loved one hurts, but what’s more heartbreaking is when one doesn’t get to say a final goodbye. Praying for @mandeeps12, @NitishRana_27 and their families to heal from this tragedy. Hats off for turning up today. Well played.

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) October 24, 2020

On Saturday, though Mandeep failed to deliver, Rana put his best foot forward. The latter entered into the form slump after his fifty against the Delhi Capitals (DC) in Sharjah. But then, against KXIP, he was sent to open the batting where he scored 81 runs off 53 balls with 13 fours and a six. He also put up a 115-run stand with Sunil Narine, who smashed a 32-ball 64.