Team India players wore black armbands in the first semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against Australia at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The armbands were in honour of domestic cricket legend Padmakar Shivalkar, who passed away due to age-related illness.
“In honour of the late Shri Padmakar Shivalkar, Team India is wearing black arm bands today,” said BCCI in a statement moments before the start of play. He was 84 and a resident of Mumbai.
Who was Padmakar Shivalkar?
In 124 first-class matches, he took 589 wickets at an average of 19.69. He was renowned for foxing the batters with his variations. He registered bowling figures of 8 for 16 and 5 for 18, leading Mumbai to a victory against Tamil Nadu in 1972-73.
Despite his dominance in domestic cricket, he was not allowed to play for the Indian team. In 2017, he was honoured with the Col. C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award.
Steve Smith won the toss and decided to bat first. The skipper led from the front and scored a well-compiled fifty to keep his team in the contest.
Australia: Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Steve Smith (captain), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
