Team India wore the black armband in the first One-Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka to pay homage to the late Anshuman Gaekwad at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday.

After Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka won the toss and opted to bat, most of the players from the visiting side took on the field wearing a black armband around their sleeves.

“Team India is wearing black armbands today in memory of former Indian cricketer and coach Aunshuman Gaekwad, who passed away on Wednesday,” the BCCI said on X.

The former India batter and coach passed away at the age of 71 after a long battle with blood cancer at the Bhailal Amin General Hospital in Vadodara.

He was shifted to Vadodara after the BCCI aided him with INR 1 crore to support his treatment after his family initially failed to cope with cope financially with the treatment charges in London.

“I was privileged to play with three of the bravest cricketers in Indian cricket — Eknath Solkar, Jimmy Amarnath and Anshuman Gaekwad. We had heard about the bravery and guts of Nari Contractor playing with a broken rib and going on to score 81 at Lords,” Gavaskar had said in a tribute to the former India batter.

“That was inspirational to budding cricketers that when it comes to playing for your country you must take all the blows and keep fighting for your team. That’s exactly what Ekki, Jimmy and Charlie as Anshuman was known, did when they donned the India cap. (It’s) very depressing news but Charlie showed here again that he wasn’t going to give his life’s wicket easily and fought right till the end. May his soul rest in eternal peace”.

Gaekwad represented India in 40 Tests, where he scored 1985 runs at an average of 30.07, with the highest score of 201. He had registered two centuries and 10 half-centuries in the longest format of the game.

Besides that, he represented India in 15 ODIs and accumulated over 12,000 runs in first-class cricket.