Paralympics 2021: Cricketers hail Bhavina Patel for her historic silver in table tennis

On the National Sports Day, Bhavina Patel gave billions of Indians a reason to celebrate as she managed to create history, by winning a silver medal in the Paralympics Games. The World No. 12, gave a tough fight in Class 4 Table Tennis to reach the top two, but alas she had to be content with the second position as World No. 1 Zhou Ying beat her in straight games 7-11, 7-11, 6-11 in 19 minutes.

Nonetheless, it was a splendid performance by Patel and her phenomenal achievement was appreciated by many cricketers. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar congratulated the silver medalist and wrote, “What wonderful news for all of India on #NationalSportsDay. Congratulations on the silver medal @BhavinaPatel6. This is a historic achievement! Every medal we win will inspire millions into the sport, & sow the seeds for more medals in the future. Good start for us at #Paralympics.”

Cricketer-turned-expert VVS Laxman followed his then-senior batting partner and tweeted, “Silver medal for India. Many Congratulations to #BhavinaPatel who has created history by becoming the first Indian para-paddler to win a medal in #Paralympics history. Flag of IndiaTable tennis paddle and ball.”

Virender Sehwag and a few Indian Premier League (IPL) teams too tweeted from their official Twitter account to congratulate Patel for winning the Silver medal.

India’s table tennis performance wins hearts in Tokyo Olympics 2020

Patel’s historic win also underlined the fact that how strong India’s performance has been in the Tokyo Olympics as well as in the Paralympics. Earlier Manika Batra made the whole of India proud by advancing to round three. In the history of the Olympics, Indian players for the first time managed to so far and gave hopes of winning a medal in that sport. Sharath too was not far behind, as he gave a good account of himself by playing consistently well in Tokyo 2020.

Although players like Neeraj Chopra, PV Sindu, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, and Indian Men’s and Women’s hockey teams hogged much of the limelight, Indian players’ terrific performance in table tennis, won hearts and applauses from experts and critics. Batra and G.Sathiyan also managed to win mixed double title at WTT Contender Budapest on Friday.