Ajinkya Rahane Becomes Father, Blessed With Baby Daughter

Ajinkya Rahane got a special gift during the ongoing Vizag Test against South Africa. The Mumbai right-handed batsman became a father with his wife Radhika Dhopavkar giving birth to a baby girl. The news was greeted with joy and excitement, with Harbhajan Singh taking to Twitter to announce his congratulations. Rahane now joins an elite club of his Indian cricket teammates who have a daughter. MS Dhoni, Harbhajan, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina have all been blessed with a girl. 

Rahane married his childhood friend Radhika in 2014. The two had met first in school and remained friends for quite some time before their parents met and arranged their marriage. Radhika had taken to social media last week to post a photo of herself with a baby bump with an emotional message stating, "Being pregnant means being ready for extra care and extra attention from just about everyone."

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Rahane recently broke his run of poor form with a century during the Test against the West Indies in Antigua. Rahane silenced the critics in style. In the first innings, he smashed 81 and helped India recover after the top-order were sent back to the pavilion cheaply. In the second innings, Rahane scored a century after 29 innings and said it was an emotional moment.

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"I thought 10th hundred was really special. I wasn't thinking about any particular celebration, it came out automatically. I was a little bit emotional. It took me two years to get that 10th hundred. As I said the process always matters to me a lot. Preparations before each and every series is very important. I was actually doing that throughout the two years, and so 10th hundred was really special. It definitely felt really special for me I got to know what it takes to get a century after two years. I've been working really hard on my batting. But I wasn't thinking much about by hundred or milestone for me. What was important was to get my team into a good position, we were 140 runs ahead with three wickets down. That partnership with Virat (Kohli) was really crucial," Rahane said.

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