Shardul Thakur debuted for India in ODI during the 4th ODI against Sri Lanka while the team was already leading by 3-0. He gave an impressive performance after bowling 7 overs in the match and ended up by just taking a lone wicket of the Lankan opener,  Niroshan Dickwella.

But he made a huge news on social media due to some other reason. It was because of the jersey number he wore. It was Jersey No. 10. People on twitter slammed him and BCCI for wearing the jersey number of Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin is just not a name, he is an emotion. With billions of fandom worldwide, as soon as Shardul was witnessed sporting his number people couldn’t stand it. According to them, that is just not a number but an emotion. Poor debutant Shardul had to bear the aftermath.

Indian spinner, and Sachin’s close friend, Harbhajan Singh came to the rescue of the young bowler from Maharashtra.

“What’s the poor guy’s fault if he wore that jersey? If he’s grown up watching Tendulkar, it may have been his dream to wear the No. 10 jersey and play for India, for which he’s worked hard. It could be his way of paying tribute to the great man or emulate him, or it could be his lucky number.” Harbhajan told TOI on Friday.

em><“Everyone has their emotions. We all respect Sachin paaji. No one wore that jersey till the time he was playing. That jersey will live on forever. Its respect will not go down simply because someone else is wearing it. It’s the Board which must decide if it wants to retire or preserve this jersey number, and dedicate it to Sachin. And if it was to be done, it should’ve been done when he quit the game (in 2013). If you speak Sachin also, he wouldn’t have a problem with someone wearing it,” Harbhajan concluded.