Former England batsman Ian Bell took to Twitter to share a video of his son Joseph completely amazed while listening to his birthday messages from some of the biggest names in world cricket -- Indian skipper Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and England all-rounder Ben Stokes. All the three cricketers, with their kind words, made Joseph's "lockdown birthday" all the more special and the former England player took to Twitter to thank them. "When cricket is life.... What a very lucky lucky boy Joseph is! Huge thanks to these absolute legends for making one incredibly happy little boy on his lockdown birthday. @imVkohli @ABdeVilliers17@benstokes38," tweeted Bell.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who is currently in Australia for a limited-overs and Test series, wishing Joseph on his special day, said: "Hi Joseph, wish you a very happy birthday. May god bless you. Take good care of yourself".
"Hello Joseph, it's AB de Villiers. I would just like to wish you a happy birthday. I hope you have a fantastic day and that you get some fantastic presents. I would love to meet you one day. I used to play a lot of cricket against your dad. We had a lot of fun on the park together. Hopefully I get to meet you some day," said de Villiers, wishing Joseph on his 8th birthday.
"Hey Joseph, I just wanna wish you a happy 8th birthday mate. Hope you have a great day. I hope you get everything that you ask for and make sure mommy and daddy look after you," Stokes can be heard saying in the video.
Like his father, Joseph also plays cricket and he participated in his "first-ever cricket game" earlier this year. As a proud father, Ian Bell had posted a video from his son's first-ever cricket match.
In a career spanning over a decade, Ian Bell played 118 Tests and 161 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) for England, scoring 7,727 and 5,416 runs respectively. He also played eight matches in the shortest format for England and scored 188 runs.