Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has given a fitting reply to former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag’s surrounding his ongoing television commercial regarding the upcoming limited-overs series between India and Australia at home. The two teams will play two Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) and five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) starting February 24.
Ahead of the series where India will return home to take on Australia in their last-gasp preparation for World Cup, Sehwag turned babysitter for a TV commercial where he tries to reignite the small banter on babysitting that had taken place in the India-Australia Test series last month between Rishabh Pant and Tim Paine.
In the video, Sehwag is seen with a bunch of kids donning the Australian jersey as he says, “Jab hum Australia gaye the, toh unhone poocha tha babysitting karoge? Humne kahaa sabke sab aajaao. Zaroor karenge (When we went to Australia we were asked if we would like to babysit? And we replied, why not and invited entire Australia to come).”
Reacting to the ongoing TV commercial, Hayden tweeted, “”#BeWarned Never take Aussie’s for a joke Viru Boy @virendersehwag @StarSportsIndia Just remember who’s baby sitting the #WorldCup trophy,” Hayden tweeted.
The babysitting episode unravelled in the third Test between India and Australia in Melbourne when Pant had taken the crease to bat before Aussie Test captain Paine chirped from behind the stumps saying: “Do you babysit? I can take my wife to the movies while you watch the kids.” And when Paine was at the strike during Australia’s batting, Pant mocked him by calling the batsman as a “temporary captain”. However, after the match which India had won, Pant had visited Paine’s house on the occasion of New Year’s day while Tim’s wife Bonnie posted a picture of the Indian with her kids on social media. The picture became viral instantly. So much so that even Bharat Army decided to pen a song on babysitting which they sang during the fourth Test, while ICC had shared a post on Pant winning the Emerging Cricketer of the Year award with the reference on babysitting.
The limited-overs series between the two nations will begin on February 24 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, while the second T20I will be played on February 27 at the Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The ODI series will begin on March 2.