App developed on Android 7.0 throws NoClassDefFoundError while connecting to Azure EventHub

We have created an Azure Event Hub and are getting an exception when the following line of code is executed. we are getting the below exception where in Android studio suggests that java/time/Duration is available only for API level 26 and above. 

Is there a EventHub library available that supports Android 7.0 ?

EventHubClient client = EventHubClient.createSync(conn.toString(), Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor());

We get the following exception.

    demo.eventhubsample E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main

    Process: demo.eventhubsample, PID: 24833

    java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Failed resolution of: Ljava/time/Duration;

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.impl.MessagingFactory.<clinit>(MessagingFactory.java:46)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.impl.EventHubClientImpl.create(EventHubClientImpl.java:53)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.create(EventHubClient.java:84)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.lambda$createSync$0(EventHubClient.java:50)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.-$$Lambda$EventHubClient$c5UbZzYQx71Hbh8oGZBMd2lKXRw.execute(lambda)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.impl.ExceptionUtil.syncWithIOException(ExceptionUtil.java:200)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.createSync(EventHubClient.java:50)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.createSync(EventHubClient.java:35)

        at demo.eventhubsample.MainActivity.sendEvent(MainActivity.java:65)

        at demo.eventhubsample.MainActivity$1.onClick(MainActivity.java:44)

        at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:5714)

        at android.widget.TextView.performClick(TextView.java:10926)

        at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:22589)

        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)

        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)

        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148)

        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7325)

        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)

        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1230)

        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1120)

     Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "java.time.Duration" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/demo.eventhubsample-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/demo.eventhubsample-1/lib/arm, /vendor/lib, /system/lib]]

        at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)

        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:511)

        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:469)

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.impl.MessagingFactory.<clinit>(MessagingFactory.java:46) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.impl.EventHubClientImpl.create(EventHubClientImpl.java:53) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.create(EventHubClient.java:84) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.lambda$createSync$0(EventHubClient.java:50) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.-$$Lambda$EventHubClient$c5UbZzYQx71Hbh8oGZBMd2lKXRw.execute(lambda) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.impl.ExceptionUtil.syncWithIOException(ExceptionUtil.java:200) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.createSync(EventHubClient.java:50) 

        at com.microsoft.azure.eventhubs.EventHubClient$-CC.createSync(EventHubClient.java:35) 

        at demo.eventhubsample.MainActivity.sendEvent(MainActivity.java:65) 

        at demo.eventhubsample.MainActivity$1.onClick(MainActivity.java:44) 

        at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:5714) 

        at android.widget.TextView.performClick(TextView.java:10926) 

        at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:22589) 

        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739) 

        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95) 

        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148) 

        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7325) 

        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) 

        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1230) 

        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1120) 

               Suppressed: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: java.time.Duration

        at java.lang.Class.classForName(Native Method)

        at java.lang.BootClassLoader.findClass(ClassLoader.java:781)

        at java.lang.BootClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:841)

        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:504)

                              ... 21 more

     Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Class not found using the boot class loader; no stack trace available

Dependencies used

 implementation 'com.microsoft.azure:azure-eventhubs:1.3.0'

API Level defined in gradle

 minSdkVersion  21  targetSdkVersion 26

Java Version

 compileOptions {         sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8         targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8     }