New Zealand batter Rachin Ravindra was not named after Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid, his father Ravi Krishnamurthy ahead of the team's semi-final against India in the ICC World Cup 2023.
There were reports that Rachin's father named him after Sachin and Dravid but Krishnamurthy said it was his wife how decided their son's name.
Ravindra's family hails from Bengaluru. His parents shifted to Wellington in 1999 but Ravindra's grandparents still reside in the garden city.
They even came to watch their grandson play at the M Chinnaswamy stadium against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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Who kept Rachin Ravindra's name?
"When Rachin was born, my wife suggested the name, and we didn't spend a lot of time discussing it. The name sounded good, was easy to spell, and short, so we decided to go with it.
"It was only some years later that we realised the name was a mix of Rahul and Sachin's names. He wasn't named with the intention to make our child a cricketer or anything of the sort," Ravi Krishnamurthy told The Print.
Ravindra's rise to fame in his homeland
23-year-old Rachin Ravindra has been a revelation in this World Cup. Ravindra smashed his maiden World Cup century against England in New Zealand's opening match before going on to hit two more hundreds against Australia and Pakistan.
Ravindra is the third highest scorer in this edition with 565 runs from 9 ODIs at an average of 70.62. This includes three tons and two fifties. Only four batters have amassed over 500 runs in this World Cup and Ravindra is one of them.
Rachin Ravindra with his parents in Bengaluru | Twitter Photo
Ravindra eager to face India in Mumbai
Ravindra is now looking forward to living another dream of playing the World Cup semi-final against India at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The high-profile clash will be played on November 15.
"You dream of playing in front of a full crowd against India, who have gone unbeaten at Wankhede, a ground with so much history. We will stay level, we'll try our best.
"We know we can't win every game of cricket, you might lose (or) you can win every game, so we will see how it plays out," Ravindra said.
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