The inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League finally commenced on Saturday with one of the most lopsided contests one would ever witness between competitive teams in the T20 format. The Dr DY Patil Stadium was witness to some fireworks from the Mumbai Indians Women batter for sure, but the second-half of the match witnessed a meek surrender by the Gujarat Giants, as they lost the match by a margin of 143 runs after getting bundled up on a paltry 64 (15.1).
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The two on-field umpires officiating the WPL 2023 opening match were Nitin Pandit and Vrinda Rathi. The TV Umpire or the Third Umpire was Pashchim Pathak, with Ranjeev Sharma as the designated reserve umpire of the match. Finally, GS Lakshmi served as the match referee.
However, third umpire Pashchim Pathak had yet again managed to get the people talking about him on social media, after an LBW decision during the Gujarat chase was sent for a review upstairs.
Does Paschim Pathak’s voice resembles Sachin Tendulkar?
The moment Pathak’s voice was heard during his review of the on-field decision, the fans watching the game were left in splits as to how the legendary Sachin Tendulkar has been donning the third umpire hat!
Mr. Pathak does indeed have a squeaky sort of voice more or less similar to Tendulkar’s. In fact, one would have to really listen to his voice carefully in order to differentiate him with the ‘Master Blaster’.
Having said that, this is not the first time when Pathak has left the fans scratching their heads and looking for answers on the internet, to know his real identity.
WHATTT is sachin Tendulkar the 3rd umpire ?? Sounds same like sachin
— All About Cricket (@allaboutcric_) March 4, 2023
Arey Pashchim Pathak hai re…
— Santadeep Dey (@SantadeepDey) March 4, 2023
Old poll on Pashchim Pathak. Worth resurfacing. https://t.co/zpqfuZ0iD4
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) March 4, 2023
Pashchim Pathak came to light during IPL 2020
It was the Rajasthan Royals versus Chennai Super Kings match during IPL 2020, when Pathak was one of the on-field umpires officiating. Having come across as quite photogenic, his long hair in particular, had the social media talking about him.
A couple of years later during an IPL 2022 match between Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans, his voice as the third umpire had the people scrambling and enquiring for answers for the first time, as it resembled to Sachin Tendulkar’s.
