Sunil Rao to represent India in bilateral wheelchair T20

Raipur: Forty-five-year-old Sunil Rao from Raipur has been selected for the three-match India-Bangladesh bilateral wheelchair T20 cricket series 2023 to be played in Kolkata from May 7 to 9.Rao, who is 80% physically challenged after his legs stopped functioning due to polio, is the only player from Chhattisgarh to represent India in this series. Picked in the squad as an all-rounder, he has already represented the nation in T20 series against Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2019. India had a clean sweep in both the series, Rao said, adding that he claimed three wickets in Bangladesh series and did not get a chance to bat because of top batters’ dominating performance.Rao is captain of the state team and is teaching students of an Industrial Training Institute at Sherikhedi Seva Niketan where physically challenged persons are undergoing treatment. Rao has been playing wheelchair cricket for last seven years. Other members of the team are Somjeet Singh (captain), Shailesh Yadav, Umesh Kaushik and Raja Babu (UP), Sandeep Kundu and Sukhwant Singh (Haryana), Saurabh Malik and Prashant Singh (Delhi), Sagar Gowda (Karnataka), Kabeer and Ajay Yadav (MP), Veer Sandhu (Punjab), Sahil Syyed and Santosh R (Maharashtra), and Jeyan Alt (TN).