NEW DELHI, Oct 30: New call-up Praveen Kumar got his first taste of life as an Indian cricket icon on Monday – and the experience put him in hospital.

The 21-year-old fainted and fell from an open jeep during a packed parade in the northern Indian town of Meerut staged to celebrate the all-rounder’s call-up to the national team.

“It was just jostling and nothing else, I felt dizzy and fell down,” the Hindustan Times quoted Kumar as saying.

Fans who had caught up with his jeep had wanted to place a garland round Kumar’s neck to mark his achievement, local reports said.

India’s domestic news agency quoted police as saying hospital X-rays revealed Kumar had not been injured in the fall.

Kumar has been named in India’s squad for the first two matches of the home one-day series against Pakistan starting on Monday.—Reuters