Ishant Sharma became the latest Indian cricketer to take their first step into the world of marriage after getting engaged to Indian basketball star Pratima Singh on Sunday. The two sportspersons who have represented the nation at the highest level with much success have been friends for some time and formally extended their relationship to a higher level earlier today.
While Ishant may have failed to consistently hold down a position for himself in the Indian team for a considerable period of time, the 6’4” fast bowler is an integral member of the Test side and seems to have rejuvenated under the captaincy of Virat Kohli with the skipper’s aggression filtering down to the pacer as well, sometimes a bit too much as was evident in his infamous altercation with a trio of Sri Lankan players during a Test in 2015.
After turning out for one of the two newly formed franchises in the IPL, the Rising Pune Supergiants, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni in the 2016 edition, Ishant is preparing for the upcoming four-match Test series against the West Indies in the Carribean. The Delhi-born cricketer was not picked for India’s ongoing tour of Zimbabwe and today’s event may have had a part to play in it.
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Hailing from Varanasi’s Basketball Family of India, Ishant’s fiancee Pratima is one of the four Singh Sisters to have represented India at the highest level across various age levels.
While her sister Prashanti is the current skipper of the Indian Women’s Basketball team, another sister Akansha is also a member of the national team. Priyanka Singh, the eldest of the lot, is a basketball coach at the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports, Patiala.
In fact, it was Divya who revealed the engagement, which the two families managed to keep hidden away from the glares of the media, by tweeting a family picture soon after the engagement ceremony.
Pratima, who started playing basketball in 2003, came up the junior levels before captaining the Junior Girls National team in 2008. She upheld the basketball legacy of her family and is an integral member of the Indian national team at present.
Her friendship with Ishant goes back a long way as can be seen from Ishant’s Twitter post from last year on the occasion of his birthday.
While no dates have been officially announced for the wedding, Ishant’s Test teammate Rohit Sharma, who was the latest high-profile Indian cricketer to tie the knot, wasted no time in welcoming the newest member to the group, and was intent on pulling the pony-tailed bowler’s leg on this special day as well.
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