When Mukesh Kumar was in the Rest of India’s team bus on the way back to the hotel after the second day’s play of the Irani Cup, he got a notification on his phone: he was added to the Indian team’s WhatsApp group for the South Africa ODI series.
Within minutes, he started getting congratulatory messages on social media and messaging apps from his fans, supporters and well-wishers. The first thing he did was to call “my mother and inform her”. That was followed with calls to those who had stood by him through thick and thin, including his coaches “Joy sir (Joydeep Mukherjee, former Bengal batter) and Rano sir (Ranadeb Bose, former Bengal swinger and bowling coach).”
