Ravindra Jadeja and his wife Rivaba receive first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Rajkot

India’s star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and his wife Rivaba on Friday received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Rajkot. Earlier, Jadeja had asked everyone to not just stay home, but also to help those who need support because everyone needs to battle it out together in this fight against the pandemic.

Jadeja was named in India’s 20-member squad which is scheduled to play a total of six Tests on their tour of England, including the all-important World Test Championship (WTC) Final against New Zealand in Southampton from June 18.

Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba gets vaccinated against coronavirus. (Photo: Gopi Maniar/India Today)

Notably, the likes of India captain Virat Kohli, Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, pacer Umesh Yadav, senior opener Shikhar Dhawan have already got their first jabs.

The Indian team will be leaving for England on June 2 for a three-and-a-half-month tour, comprising six Test matches, including the World Test Championship final against New Zealand. The WTC final gets underway on June 18 and will continue till June 22 with June 23 kept as a reserve day. While it was initially set to be played at the Lord’s, the ICC decided to move it to Southampton with an eye on the COVID-19 situation across the globe.

(Photo: Gopi Maniar/India Today)

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

The cricket fraternity has joined hands to help the country in tough times. Rishabh Pant has said he will donate to Hemkunt Foundation to procure beds and Oxygen cylinders for Covid-19 patients. Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma have donated Rs 2 crore to a fund-raising project, which will raise a total of Rs 7 crore to support the country’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.