It was, perhaps, easier for him to scalp 11 batsmen in eight matches and help India win the World Cup after 28 years in 2011. And, dream of doing a Shoaib Akhtar by bowling at 160 kmph, having already clocked 144 kmph that earned him the sobriquet of ‘Ikhar Express.’
But when former India pacer Munaf Patel went back to his village Ikhar in Gujarat’s Bharuch district in April this year to find Covid striking, it was certainly not an easy task to convince villagers to practice social distancing.
This tiny village with 8,000 people had not woken up to the enormity of the threat, till it struck Ikhar in the second week of April when five persons tested positive for Covid-19.
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Ikhar was the only village in the whole taluka to report positive cases and wa