Meet the people who lifted the Asia Cup trophy after India’s win

After a fantastic performance by the Indian Cricket Team against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup 2023 Final, India defeated Sri Lanka by 10 wickets to lift the trophy for the record eighth time in ODI format of Asia Cup history. India dismissed the entire Sri Lankan team for 50 runs after a mind-blowing inning by Mohammed Siraj in which he picked by 6 wickets for only 21 runs in just seven overs followed by cameos by Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. This was a big and necessary boost for the Indian team, ahead of the ICC World Cup which has not yet won an ICC trophy since 2013.

During the celebration, several team players lifted the trophies, and one of the first players to lift the trophy was Tilak Verma, the 20-year-old left-handed batsman. This has been a tradition in the Indian cricket team where the newcomers and the youngest players are given the chance to lift the trophy before any others.

Soon after him, another person lifted the trophy, however, he was neither a player nor a coach or a physio but rather he was Raghu Raghavendra, a ‘throw-down specialist’. The job of a ‘throw-down specialist’ who throws down balls to the Indian batters in the nets with a slinger to train the batters to play against tricky bowlers.

Raghu Raghavendra hails from and joined the BCCI from the National Cricket Academy and soon became India’s first throw-down specialist. He has also given throw-downs to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni.

“A lot of credit has to go to these guys, who have given us practice regularly and their contribution has been unbelievable. You guys should remember their names and faces because, behind our success, a lot of effort has been put in by these guys,” Kohli had earlier said about the throw-down specialists.

Reacting to India’s victory over Sri Lanka and Siraj’s performance of 6/21, Rohit Sharma couldn’t hide his satisfaction and said, “I get a lot of satisfaction when I see fast bowlers perform like this. All the captains take a lot of pride in fast bowling (at their disposal), and I am no different. We have got a fantastic set of fast bowlers,” Rohit said at the post-match media conference.

“All of them have different skill sets and variations – one can bowl quick, one can swing the ball, one can get good bounce. When you get all of these aspects in one team, it is a feel-good factor,” added Rohit.

Rohit also said that Siraj was so high on adrenaline after the seven-over spell that it required a word from the trainer to stop him from bowling. “It was very pleasing to watch from the slips (how Siraj bowled). He got the ball to move a bit more than the other two. We were riding behind him (Siraj) when he was bowling that spell,” Rohit Sharma added.  “He bowled seven overs in that spell, and I got a message from the trainer that we have to stop him now. He was quite desperate to bowl,” said Rohit with a chuckle.

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