Indian spinner Piyush Chawla suffered a tragedy on May 10 as his father succumbed to COVID-19 and died. “Lost my pillar of strength”, was what Chawla wrote in his heartfelt Instagram post where he confirmed the news of the demise of his father. The 32-year-old’s father is among several hundreds who have lost their lives due to the deadly COVID-19’s second wave. While the country’s health care infrastructure is stretched, personal losses are taking toll on the mental health of people.

Background

While the country may seem to be nearing the COVID-19 peak, there seems to be no end in sight. Every day reports of a political leader, a cricketer, a celebrity losing their life or losing someone close to them is becoming a common thing. On May 10, experienced Indian spinner also suffered a tragic blow when his father who was battling COVID-19 finally succumbed to the disease and died

Details

On May 10, Chawla took to Instagram to confirm the news of his father’s death. In his heartfelt message, Chawla wrote, “With deepest grief, we announce that my beloved father, Mr. Pramod Kumar Chawla, left for the heavenly abode on 10th May 2021. He was suffering from covid and post covid complications.”

Chawla further requested the thoughts and prayers of everyone and added, “We invite your kind thoughts and prayers in this difficult time. May his noble soul rest in peace.” With the message and his father’s picture alongside it, Chawla in the caption wrote, “Life won’t be same without him anymore, lost my pillar of strength today.”

Piyush Chawla was part of both the ODI world-cup winning squad and the T20 World-cup winning squad. He was also part of the 2014 team of Kolkata Knight Riders that went on to win that edition. He was later bagged by Mumbai Indians for the 2021 edition of the tournament, but wasn’t in the final playing XI a single match.

After the news of the death of Chawla’s father was confirmed, the cricketing fraternity and fans on Twitter came forward to pay their respects and condolences.

IPL Sensation Chetan Sakariya’s father dies due to COVID-19

Rajasthan Royals fast bowler Chetan Sakariya, who was having a triumphant season this year in IPL suffered a tragic blow after his father Kanjibhai Sakariya died due to COVID-19. On May 9th, the news of Sakariya’s father passing away due to COVID-19 was confirmed. To say Sakariya has been having a traumatic year would be an understatement as earlier he also lost his younger brother Rahul, who committed suicide. Chetan showed true strength of character and rose from his grief and scalped 7 wickets in 7 games in the now suspended IPL.

Veda Krishnamurthy’s sister and mother passes away due to COVID-19 related complications

Indian women team’s aggressive middle-order batswoman Veda Krishnamurthy, who was just reeling from the loss of her mother due to COVID suffered another blow when her elder sister also succumbed to the virus. Vatsala Shivakumar, Veda’s elder sister, was hospitalized for a month after she was tested positive for the virus. According to Irfan Sait, coach of Veda, Vatsala’s death that transpired a few weeks after Veda’s mother’s death had “completely broken” the batter.

Dhoni’s parents, R. Ashwin’s family, Sachin Tendulkar, all test positive

In the second wave of the pandemic, several Indian cricketers and their relatives are contracting the virus left and right. From master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, to captain cool M.S. Dhoni’s parents, it has been a tough year for the entire Indian cricketing fraternity.

Also read: Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar confirms testing positive for COVID-19; Suffering from mild symptoms

Earlier, KKR’s Nitish Rana was also tested positive for the virus. Rana was followed by Axar Patel, Devdutt Padikkal, Daniel Sams and Kiran More all tested positive due to which IPL was suspended indefinitely.