Indian cricketers are loved all over the country and their names are household. However, many few have come across the nicknames, given to your favourite cricketers by their parents or their playing habits. Here’s a look at them-
Virat Kohli- Cheeku
The Indian captain is fondly known as Cheeku. He revealed that his big ears and chubbiness in childhood made his coach call him “Cheeku”.
Ajinkya Rahane- Ajju
India’s vice skipper is fondly called Ajju, which is a shorter version of his name.
Ravindra Jadeja- Jaddu
The Saurashtra cricketers’s nickname is derived from his surname.
Harbhajan Singh- Bhajji or Bhajju
The turbanator is unaware of the fact that who created his surname, but it is rightly understood that the name is derived from “Bhajan”. He was better known as Sonu in his childhood.
Suresh Raina- Sonu
The southpaw cricketers nickname was given to him by his parents.
Rohit Sharma- Shaana or Hitman
The vice skipper of Indian limited overs team is also known as “Shaana”. This name was given to him by Yuvraj Singh as “Shaana” is a Marathi word and since Rohit also comes from Mumbai, this may be a befitting nickname to him. “Shaana” means a person with great knowledge and abilities.
Yuvraj Singh- Yuvi
The 2011 world cup winning hero gets his nickname from his real name- “Yuvraj”.
Shikhar Dhawan- Gabbar
The Indian opener is also known as ‘Gabbar’. He revealed that this name was given to him by his Ranji teammates when he used to field at silly point during his Ranji days and when the opposition had a good partnership going, he would joke around to boost the morale of the team and yell –“Bohot yaarana lagta hai,” which is a famous dialogue of Gabbar from the movie “Sholay”.
Hardik Pandya- Hairy
The junior Pandya often comes up with different hairstyles which is why he is named “Hairy”.
Ravichandran Ashwin- Ash
The off spinner’s nick name is a short form of “Ashwin”.
- Anil Kumble – Jumbo
- Kapil Dev — The Haryana Hurricane
- Rahul Dravid — The Wall, Mr. Dependable, Jammy
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni — Mahi, Captain cool
- Sunil Gavaskar – Sunny, Little Master
- Sourav Ganguly – Dada , The Prince of Kolkata
- Gautam Gambhir – Gauti
- Zaheer Khan – Zak
- VVS Laxman – Very Very Special
- Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi — Tiger
- Virender Sehwag — Viru , Nawab of Najafgarh Sultan of Multan
- Sachin Tendulkar – Little Master , Master Blaster Tendlya , God of Cricket
- Robin Utthappa – Robbie
- Ajit Agarkar – Bombay Duck
- Parthiv Patel – Bachcha
- Venkatapathy Raju – Muscles
- Ishant Sharma – Ishu , Lambu
- Ravi Shastri – Shaz
- Navjot Singh Sidhu – Sherry , Sixer Sadhu
- Javagal Srinath – Babu , Mysore Express
- Dilip Vengsarkar – Colonel
- Gundappa Viswanath – Vishy
- Anshuman Gaekwad – Charlie
- Mohinder Amarnath – Jimmy
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar- Bhuvi
- Murali Vijay- The Monk
- Dinesh Karthik- DK
- Cheteshwar Pujara- Pujji
- Yuvzendra Chahal- Yuzi
- Kuldeep Yadav- Kuli
