Her husband may not have got the farewell she desired but Sania Mirza tried her best to make her husband, Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik, feel happy about his long and, at times, illustrious ODI career. The Indian tennis star posted a message on Twitter where she conveyed to her hubby how proud she feels of him.
"'Every story has an end, but in life every ending is a new beginning' @realshoaibmalik. You have proudly played for your country for 20 years and you continue to do so with so much honour and humility. Izhaan and I are so proud of everything you have achieved but also for who you are," Sania wrote on her timeline.
It can be recalled how Mirza was targeted by Pakistani netizens after the loss of their team to India and the bad performance of Shoaib. A video of the couple sitting at a restaurant where some of their friends were smoking sheesha became viral and it was believed by many that the outing was on the eve of the match. Even prominent Pakistani celebrities got involved in commenting about the supposed lack of seriousness on the part of Mirza and Malik.
Sania strongly responded to these comments but then decided to go off Twitter. Meanwhile, Malik, whose performance had been very poor in this World Cup, was dropped from the team and his replacement Haris Sohail proved to be very successful. This denied the veteran Pakistani batsman a farewell match.
However, the Pakistani team showed their appreciation for the retiring player by giving him a guard of honour. Interestingly, Sania wrote the message of appreciation not only on her behalf but also on behalf of their newly-born son Izhaan. Even the official 2019 World Cup handle tweeted photos of Malik's teammates congratulating him and called the player a legend.
Malik started his career as an off-spinner who could bat well in the lower order. However, in 2004, under the coaching of Bob Woolmer, he was suddenly given the no.3 spot during that year's Asia Cup and that proved to be the turning point of his career as he became a very successful middle-order batsman.
