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It's tough to be in Vishnu Solanki's place who suffered back-to-back tragedies but still decided to continue with the third Ranji Trophy game for Baroda. Vishnu had a terrible time as he lost his ailing father on Sunday (February 27) which followed the demise of his newly born daughter on February 10.
Vishnu got the news of his father's death and watched the funeral on video call. In the last two weeks, the 29-year-old from Baroda has shown that when it comes to showing nerves of steel in times of tragedy, he is one in a million.
"He (Vishnu) will be playing the last match. He is not coming back. He is playing the third match. He is staying with the team," Baroda Cricket Association secretary Ajit Lele said on Monday.
The 29-year-old had become a father on February 10 but the very next day his baby girl died.
"When his daughter passed away, he came back but he missed the first match, because again he had to undergo a three-day quarantine. But now he stayed back," added another senior BCA official.
But a day later, the infant died in hospital and Vishnu, who was in a bio-bubble, left for his hometown to attend the funeral when all he wanted was to hold his bundle of joy in his arms and plant that first kiss on her forehead.
Instead, he was performing the last rites as Baroda geared up for their match against Bengal, which he missed.
No one would have mind if Vishnu would have stayed back to be by his wife's side when she needed him the most but for domestic cricketers, Ranji Trophy is one of the primary sources of livelihood and missing matches in a curtailed season is losing out on hard- earned money.
So, before his teammates could gather their thoughts, Vishnu was back in Cuttack for the second round game against Chandigarh, trying hard to forget the tragedy that hit the young man.
He smashed a hundred, perhaps reminded of a Sachin Tendulkar, who was back in Bristol days after his father's death as his mother Rajni didn't want him to forget his national duty.
The next match starts from March 3 where Baroda meet Hyderabad but one wishes that Vishnu gets some time to grieve. He probably hasn't yet got time to figure out what it is to lose a child and a parent within a space of two weeks.
One doesn't know if Vishnu Solanki will ever wear the India shirt but when it comes to steely temperament, he is right up there.
