A member of the support staff for the Indian men’s cricket team was reportedly prevented by cops in Nagpur from entering the team hotel before the first ODI against England, as they mistook him for a fan. In a viral video circulating on social media, Raghavendra, known to one and all as Raghu, a beleaguered throwdown specialist, unsuccessfully tried for a pretty long time to reach his teammates at the other end of the team bus when two policemen, in full uniform, stopped him.
Bystanders who had recognized him made attempts to convince the policemen that he was a part of the coaching staff and just came out from the team bus.
The ever-smiling Raghu managed politely and calmly to get through and proceeded on his way.
GOAT Raghu of Indian cricket team was denied entry by Nagpur police 😂
— Ctrl C Ctrl Memes (@Ctrlmemes_) February 4, 2025
Nagpur police guarding Rohit Sharma's boys too strictly 😎 pic.twitter.com/iko9TTD0hP
Value a brief biographical note about Raghu: a throw-down specialist, he has been on the list of the support staff for the Indian cricket team for over a decade now, with supporters, including legend Ravi Shastri, proclaiming his contribution to Indian cricket.
Having come, at an early age, from Karnataka with dreams of becoming a cricketer, Raghu left home with no backing from his family. “He was sleeping wherever he could. Bus stand, temple, graveyard,” back in Hubli before someone found him by watching his school cricket matches and provided him shelter at the Karnataka State Cricket Association.
A hand injury cut his playing career short, leading him to coaching.
As for the Indians, in the Rohit Sharma captaincy, they will previously compete against England today in Nagpur in a three-match ODI series. With the tour of Sri Lanka forming the last one-day series since August of last year, this will be the first one-day series that the Indian team plays this season.
The matches will be important for team India’s as this will help the “Men in blue ” to get their preparation underway for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy which is set to commence from February 19 to March 9 in Pakistan and Dubai
Team India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.
India’s updated squad for the England series.: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ꮪhubman Gill (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy
