COVID-19: Rahane receives first dose of vaccine

Bengaluru, May 8: Indian cricket team's Test team's vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Got my first dose of the vaccine today. I urge everyone to register and get yourself vaccinated, if you're eligible," tweeted Rahane.

The 32-year-old, who most recently featured for the Delhi Capitals franchise in the now-suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season, tweeted a picture of him getting vaccinated from his official handle.

The Mumbai batsman was retained as Virat Kohli's deputy for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand (June 18 to 22) and the subsequent away series in England.

Following the WTC final in Southampton, India play England in a five-match Test series to be held in August and September.

Rahane follows senior India opener Shikhar Dhawan, who also received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine recently.

Dhawan was his team-mate at the Delhi Capitals too.

Team India coach Ravi Shastri was the first from the Indian cricket team to receive the vaccine.

He got his first jab in the first week of March, when vaccination was made open for all senior citizens.

In order to ramp up the coronavirus vaccination drive in the country, the centre government had last month announced a liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination from May 1.

Now, everyone above the age of 18 are eligible to get COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccination drive among cricketers gathered momentum after IPL 2021 was suspended midway due to a spate of COVID-19 cases among the players.

Only 29 of the scheduled 60 matches of the cash-rich global T20 franchise-based league conducted under the auspices of the Board of Control for Cricket in India could be completed as breach in bio-bubble saw a surge in COVID-19 cases.

(With PTI inputs)