Suresh Raina welcomes Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza to the parenting club

Ace tennis star Sania Mirza and Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik welcomed a baby boy to their family on Tuesday morning and understandably, the mood was happy. Wishes poured in for the newborn as Shoaib posted a tweet confirming the news also confirming that Sania was doing well. Personalities from both the sporting and film worlds congratulated the duo on turning parents. The trans-national sporting couple, who got married in 2010, revealed Sania’s pregnancy in April this year.

Among the cricketers, Suresh Raina also chipped in with a congratulatory tweet for the couple, welcoming them to the parents’ club. Sania, 31, the first Indian tennis player to win a WTA tournament singles title in 2005, had earlier said that the newborn’s surname will be Mirza-Malik. The Hyderabad girl, a former doubles No.1, has been on the sidelines since October 2017 and is keen on making a comeback to the court for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Tokyo.

Sania had also added that she would set an example for her child that nothing on this planet – be it pregnancy, motherhood or parenthood – should not hold somebody back from achieving the dream. Recently, US tennis star Serena Williams also did something similar, bringing her little girl (she became mother last year) to the courts to watch her play.

She also has won six Grand Slam doubles titles, including the 2015 Wimbledon ladies’ doubles crown with Switzerland’s Martina Hingis. She also has done well in mixed doubles with the likes Mahesh Bhupathi. Sania can be India’s answers to global sporting supermoms like Serena and Belgian Kim Clijsters who had also come out of retirement in 2008, a year after giving birth to her daughter.

Shoaib, a key pillar of Pakistan’s limited-overs team

Shoaib Malik, on the other hand, is one of Pakistan’s key pillars in the limited-overs format. He is Pakistan’s highest scorer in the T20Is with over 2,000 runs and has accumulated over 11,000 runs in international cricket with 12 centuries and also has 210 wickets in a career spanning almost 20 years now. He retired from Test cricket in 2015 and has prolonged his career in the shorter formats. Pakistan recently thrashed Australia 3-0 in a T20I series and Shoaib came out in full support for his team, especially after the criticism they faced following the Asia Cup debacle.

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