PadMan Challenge: Ravi Shastri poses with sanitary pad, asks Virat Kohli to join campaign

India coach Ravi Shastri on Wednesday joined the PadMan Challenge as he posted a photo of himself with a sanitary napkin. In a tweet, the former allrounder wrote, “Yes, it’s a Pad in my hand. Happy to support rockstar Akshay Kumar for breaking the taboo and initiating an open conversation.” Shastri, who is currently in South Africa with the Indian cricket team, for the ongoing 6-match ODI series, further joked, “AK, am sure no ball is going to hit PAD (MAN).”

The 55-year old further extended the challenge to Indian skipper Virat Kohli and tennis legend Leander Paes. “Here I challenge @imVkohli @SinghaniaGautam @Leander,” he wrote. Earlier on Tuesday, 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist shuttler PV Sindhu also posted a photo on Instagram with a sanitary pad in hand in support to the campaign, which was started by the Akshay Kumar-starrer film Pad Man, in an attempt to raise and spread awareness on menstruation and sanitation.

In a post, Sindhu, who lost to American Beiwan Zhang at the India Open Super final in New Delhi on Sunday, thanked Bollywood star Deepika Padukone for tagging her and wrote,”! Yes, that’s a Pad in my hand. Periods are normal. Just another day…#PadManChallenge.”‘

The challenge, which has been taken by a number of celebrities in recent days, asks people to post a photo with a sanitary napkin in hand to get rid of the taboo associated with menstruation.

Meanwhile, under Shastri as coach, India has won the first two ODIs in South Africa and has taken a 2-0 lead in the series. The third ODI at Cape Town will give the visitors a chance to take an unassailable lead of 3-0 in the series.