IPL 2021: Jos Buttler urges people to stay at home amid rising COVID-19 cases in India

Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Saturday shared a GIF on its official Twitter handle, where its star English batsman Jos Buttler could be seen urging people to stay at home amidst the rising COVID-19 cases in India. The franchise captioned the post saying, "Jos wants to say something". In the GIF, Jos can be seen joining his hands in a namaste posture to request everyone to stay at home. The request comes amid the increasing COVID-19 cases in India, which recorded its biggest single-day surge on April 16 with 2,34,000 new infections. 

India is currently witnessing the second wave of COVID-19 as the country has been recording a spike in cases and deaths for the past couple of days. Apart from registering its single-biggest rise in cases on Friday, India also saw a record number of people die due to the disease since September 2020, when the country was undergoing its first wave of pandemic. More than 1,300 people died on April 16, the highest since 1,201 in September 2020. India now has over 14 million cases and 1,76,000 deaths from COVID-19, while the world has 140 million cases and 3 million deaths. 

Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2021

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals won its first game of the season against Delhi Capitals on Thursday as the Sanju Samson-led team chased down a low total of 147 runs. Rajasthan had come into the game after losing a thriller against Punjab Kings the other day, where they failed to chase 221 runs in 20 overs. Despite a century from Sanju Samson, the Men in Pink lost the game by 3 runs as the skipper fell short by three to four yards while trying to hit the ball for a six. In the second game, South African dup David Miller and Chris Morris helped the team cross the finishing line with their power-pact performances. 

Rajasthan will play its next game against Chennai Super Kings on Monday, April 19, where both teams will compete to get an additional two points to get ahead of a slew of other teams in the tournament, who have two points each.

(Image Credit: RajasthanRoyals/Twitter)