India polish off 128-run target in less than 12 overs
Player of the match Arshdeep Singh and comeback ‘mystery’ spinner Varun Chakaravarthy scalp three each
Speedster Mayank Yadav and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy get India cap
International cricket returned to the royal city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh 14 years after Sachin Tendulkar created history here by smashing the first double century ever in an ODI against South Africa. The venue, however, shifted from the iconic Captain Roop Singh Stadium in the heart of the city to the swanky new Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium, named after late former Indian cricket board President Madhavrao Scindia, just outside the city.
And what a memorable inaugural international match it was at the stadium on Sunday as a new look Indian T20I side, under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, playing clinical cricket, literally toyed with a clueless Bangladesh team to win the first match in the three-match T20I series by seven wickets in less than 12 overs on Sunday.
The match witnessed two new promising stars of Indian cricket – speedster Mayank Yadav and seaming allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy – donning the India cap for the first time.
First the bowlers made mincemeat of the Bangladesh batting lineup, with all the six bowlers on display impressing with their varying styles of bowling. India’s pace spearhead Arshdeep and ‘mystery’ spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, the latter making a comeback to international cricket after playing for the country in the T20 World Cup 2021, were the pick of the bowlers, scalping three batters each.
Arshdeep Singh was awarded the Player of the Match award with a bowling analysis of 3.5-0-14-3.
Hardik Pandya also came good with an all-round performance, claiming one wicket and remaining unbeaten on 39 off just 16 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Mayank Yadav was right on the money from the first ball, bowling a maiden first over in his debut match, a great achievement in this format of the game. He picked up his first international wicket as well, finishing with an impressive analysis of 4-1-21-1.
Washington Sundar, picking up one wicket in his two overs, and debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy, though going wicketless in his two overs, were also equally impressive.
Bangladesh lost their big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman Litton Das in Arshdeep’s very first over, and they did not really recover thereafter, losing wickets at regular intervals with their innings folding up at 127 in 19.5 overs. Captain Shanto (27 off 25) showed some resistance before giving a dolly caught and bowled chance to Washington Sundar, thank you so much!
Allrounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz was the highest scorer in the innings, remaining unbeaten on a well made 35 off 32 balls with three hits to the fence.
A view of the swanky new Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia cricket stadium in Gwalior, named after former BCCI president Madhav Rao Scindia
The Indian openers came all guns blazing with Abhishek Sharma being more belligerent of the two. He raced to 16 off just 7 balls with two boundaries and one maximum before he was unfortunately runout.
However, the others, including the other opener wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson and captain Suryakumar maintained the tempo of the innings. Right through the innings India maintained a run rate above 10 runs an over. Suryakumar Yadav hit the maximum number of sixes (three) out of the seven scored in the Indian innings.
India went into the match with eight bowling options. However, the other two bowling options, Abhishek Sharma and Riyan Parag, were not utilised, given Bangladesh’s dismal batting performance.
The gates to various polling booths across Haryana had barely been closed on Saturday for the 2024 assembly elections when various exit polls started scrambling to announce the results of their exit polls.
The predictions of all the four-five exit polls conducted by various organisations on behalf of different channels, though varying in numbers, pointed in the same general direction as the most dominant perception that the ruling BJP is losing, and the resurgent Congress is staging a comeback by a comfortable margin after staying out of power for the last 10 years.
Unlike the exit polls which failed miserably in the Lok Sabha 2024 elections at a national level, having made predictions which were way off the dominant perception sweeping the country, that the ruling BJP at the Centre is in for major setbacks, the state level exit polls can be seen to be more creditable since these almost ditto reflect the widespread public perception that 10 years of anti-incumbency is going to majorly dent the electoral prospects of the ruling party.
The BJP had apparently itself acknowledged the anti-incumbency factor, along with the backlash of the state and central government’s unpopular handling of the farmers’ as well as wrestlers’ agitations, when it replaced its chief minister for nine-and-a-half year Manohar Lal with then state party president Nayab Singh Saini ahead of the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.
It was widely believed that the apparent damage control exercise, coming as it did too late in the day, would not help reverse the electoral prospects of the party, and it was proven in the Lok Sabha elections when the party took a five-seat hit from its 10-on-10 performance in the previous elections in 2014 and 2019.
Coming to the exit polls, though, as mentioned earlier in the write-up, all the exit polls point in the same general direction, we will dwell on what to us looks the most creditable among them – the India Today C-Voter poll.
The poll gives the Congress between 50-58 seats in the 90-member state assembly (in 2019 election it won 31), the ruling BJP 20-28 seats (it won 40 in 2019) and others, including Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 10-16 seats (in 2019 they were 19, including JJP’s 10).
The BJP has understandably rubbished these polls, with its national spokesperson claiming that its own polls give it 50-plus seats and that it will be forming a government in the state for the third time in a row.
On the other hand, former Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who dominated the poll scene for the party in Haryana, asserted that the BJP is going, and the Congress is coming back to power with a thumping majority.
For the ultimate truth, however, we’ll have to wait till October 8, when counting will take place along with Jammu and Kashmir.
Research output in the country is concentrated in a few institutions
Private sector funding of R&D in India very low as compared to leading countries
India in race for supremacy in Quantum Tech and development of generative AI
Biography of Prof Om Parkash Vig, a distinguished chemist and former Chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Chemistry, released on his 100th birth anniversary
It’s not often that you get to hear in depth one of the bright brains in the country helping shape the scientific roadmap of the country about the challenges faced by the country and the priorities set by the government of the day to overcome these.
So, here was the man, the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India, Padma Shri Prof Ajay Kumar Sood emphasising on the need for universities and institutes of higher learning, as well as private industry, to majorly step up their research and Development (R&D) efforts to raise it to international levels.
He also shared the mission mode in which the government is working to establish the country’s supremacy in the critical fields of quantum technologies and artificial intelligence moving forward and measures undertaken to achieve the country’s target of net zero economy by the year 2070.
Prof Sood was delivering the Panjab University (PU) Foundation Day Lecture-cum-Pran Nath Vohra Oration on the topic ‘India @2030 Marching Forward: Science and Technology Space in India’ at the University Auditorium on Tuesday.
Himself an alumnus of the university, the PSA, in the presence of Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig, and other top brass of the university, also released a biography of Prof Om Parkash Vig, a distinguished chemist and former Chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Chemistry, on the latter’s 100th birth anniversary.
The biography, chronicling Prof OP Vig’s life, achievements, and scientific contributions, has been authored jointly by Germany-based science historian Prof Rajinder Singh and Dr SS Bari, who remained associated with the distinguished chemist for four decades.
A special cover in memory of Prof Vig, released by India Post, was also unveiled on the occasion with his family members in attendance.
While noting the significant strides made by the country in the R&D domain in terms of infrastructure as well as outcomes, Prof Sood also listed out areas where India is lagging the advanced countries and needs to catch up fast.
India’s R&D growth story
PSA to GOI Prof Aay Sood receiving the Pran Nath Vohra Citation from PU Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig
Among the achievements, Prof Sood mentioned India’s vastly improved ranking in Global Innovation Index, rapidly increasing Gross Expenditure on R&D, tripling the number of publications, third rank in PhDs in Science & Technology as well as patents granted, and world’s third largest startup ecosystem.
Stressing on the growth story of higher education in India, he shared that the number of universities in the country have grown from 827 to 1305, institutes of national importance from 75 to 158, and total PhD enrolments from 1.17 lakh to 2.13 lakh. He said it is gratifying to note that female PhD enrolments have also more than doubled from 48,000 to 99,000.
In the QS World University Ranking 2025, 11 Indian institutions have found a place in the top 500 worldwide and two of them have been ranked in the top 150 – IIT Bombay (118 rank) and IIT Delhi (150 rank), he pointed out.
Still country lagging leading countries
PSA to GOI Prof Ajay Sood releasing the biography of Prof Om Parkash Vig, a distinguished chemist and former Chairperson of Panjab University’s Department of Chemistry, on the latter’s 100th birth anniversary
The PSA however admitted that despite India’s growth story in R&D, it was lagging leading countries with gross R&D expenditure as percentage of GDP at a low of 0.64%, compared to China, Finland, Japan, South Korea, and USA which are spending in the region of 2-4% of their GDP on R&D.
In terms of full-time R&D personnel per million population also India with 262 researchers stands nowhere near China, USA, Japan, Finland, and South Korea, the last country having an astronomical ratio of 9000.
Sharing glaring data based on NIRF: India Rankings 2024, he highlighted that research output in the country is concentrated in a few institutions.
According to the data, the number of most productive institutions as per laid down parameters is only 18 (with average publications per institution of 7620), medium productive institutions are 47 (Av publications 2839), low productive institutions 108 (Av publications 1236), and least productive institutions 115 (Av publications 1121).
Institutions with zero publications
PSA to GOI Prof Ajay Sood inaugurating the PI-RAHI (Northern Region Science and Technology Cluster), an initiative under Science & Technology Cluster programme of his office, at the Panjab University in Chandigarh
Revealing that there are 80 universities and institutions of higher learning with zero publications, he said the situation is worrisome and the country will have to ensure that the R&D infrastructure and ecosystem is evenly distributed across institutions.
While the private industry in the leading countries is contributing a lion’s share of R&D funding, the Indian private industry’s contribution is only 36.4%, the rest being funded by the government. In comparison the private sector’s funding of R&D effort in South Korea is 79.1%, Japan (78.6), USA (77.6), China (76.9), UK (70.9), Germany (66.9) and France (65.7%), Prof Sood added.
He said the private sector in the country will have to be motivated to invest more in R&D to accelerate the pace of development in the country.
Dwelling on another significant parameter – Human Development Index, which takes into account education, health and living standards – he said here again India, currently with an index of 0.645, has to step up and move from the medium category to the world average high category index of between 0.700-0.799.
While emphasising that a lot of work is being undertaken to carry forward various national missions like One Health Mission, Electric Vehicles Mission, Green Hydrogen Mission and AGNII (Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovation), he delved deep into two missions in which the country is aspiring to lead the world – the National Quantum Mission and the Artificial Intelligence Mission.
Race for supremacy in quantum tech
Giving reasons why India, like many other leading nations, is in the race for supremacy in quantum computing space, he said it is a critical area for ensuring national security. If your adversary has quantum computers, and you don’t, then the security of all your digitally operated national grids, which work of encrypted communication networks, face the threat of being compromised and the country can collapse.
Sharing that the country is investing heavily in quantum computing, he listed out the technology’s immense long-term potential in crucial areas like drug designing and precise climate predictions.
Generative AI
Another area of deep focus, Prof Sood said is development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Despite its various pitfalls, AI is here to stay, and no country can afford to be left behind in the field, which has progressed to generative AI.
However, he emphasised that India should create its own large language models (LLMs) for AI applications, which should be trained on our own data, and not depend on data from Europe or the US, which can be biased.
Among the seven pillars of the new AI mission launched by the Indian government are compute capacity, which is very large; applications development; startup financing; establishing innovation centres; and safe and trusted AI, Prof Sood stated.
Force incredible 7-wicket win in rain-truncated 2nd Test at Kapur with nearly 1 ½ sessions of play remaining
The Bangladesh national cricket team crossed the border Into India starry-eyed after their historic first ever Test series win against Pakistan, a 2-0 whitewash, that too in the latter’s own backyard, marking only their third Test series win away from home. Little would they have visualised they will be thumped so badly as to start seeing stars in daylight.
It’s remarkable the way India forced a crushing defeat on the visitors in a rain truncated 2nd Test in just over two-days play to complete a 2-0 clean sweep of the series. In doing so India have proved that with the talent and confidence the team has it can make possible the seemingly impossible.
The 7-wicket victory at The Green Park in Kanpur, with nearly 1 ½ sessions of play remaining in a match two full days of which were lost to rain, was an even more impressive one than the 280-run pasting of the visitors in the first Test at Chennai in terms of the sheer resolve and clinical execution of plans displayed by the team.
With the 2-0 series sweep, India have extended their streak of consecutive series wins at home to 18. The next best by any team is by Australia who had two different streaks of 10. Four thousand three hundred and six (4306) are the number of days since India last lost a Test series at home.
India has also consolidated their lead on the top of the World Test Series (WTC) 2023-2025 leaderboard.
Meanwhile, for his excellent performance, with half centuries in both innings (72 and 51), young and talented opener Yashasvi Jaiswal collected the ‘Player of the Match’ award, while star allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin bagged the ‘Player of the Series’ award for the 11th time in his career for his masterly century and six wickets in the first Test in Chennai, and six more dismissals in Kanpur.
Yashasvi Jaiswal became the eighth player overall and the second Indian to score 50 or more in both innings of a Test at a pace of more than run-a-ball. The only Indian, and the first player ever to do so before him, was Virender Sehwag against West Indies at Delhi in 2011. England’s Harry Brook is the only player in the world to have done this twice.
In winning his 11th Man of the Series award in Tests, Ravichandran Ashwin equalled Muttiah Muralitharan’s record for winning the most Man of the Series awards in Test cricket. Muttiah Muralitharan played 60 series, while Ashwin reached the landmark in just 39 series.
India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah continued his highly productive 2024 with a six-wicket match haul. The prolific pacer now has the joint-most Test wickets in this year (38) with Sri Lanka’s Prabath Jayasuriya.
Proceedings on the last day of the 2nd Test at Kapur began with Bangladesh resuming their second outing at 26/2 still trailing by 26 runs from India’s first innings total. Ashwin struck early inducing a false sweep shot from first innings unbeaten centurion Mominul Haque.
The skiddy Ravindra Jadeja then ran through the middle order, first getting rid of captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and breaking his stubborn partnership of 55 with opener Shadman Islam. He stuck in three consecutive overs, also sending back wicketkeeper-batsman Litton Das and allrounder Shakib Al Hasan. His bowling analysis in the initial part of his spell read 2.2-1-3-3.
Bangladesh slumped from 91/3 to 94/7 with pacer Akash Deep chipping in with the seventh wicket, and Bumrah polishing off the tail.
It was an incredible performance by the hosts both with the bat and ball. They took just 121.2 overs to skittle out the entire Bangladesh team twice and rattled off the winning runs in both innings in just 51.6 overs.
It was day to remember for ages. Records fell like nine pins. Sensing an iota of opportunity to force what earlier looked like an improbable victory on the fourth day of the 2nd Test match against Bangladesh at Kanpur, after losing two full days to rain, Indian batsmen, led by captain Rohit Sharma, went ballistic, trampling records at will.
Wrapping up the visitors’ first innings at 233 (resuming the innings on the fourth day at 107-3) midway through the second session of play, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal strode into the park with an intent, plundering runs at will against a clueless young Bangladesh pace attack. After young Yashasvi smacked fours of three consecutive balls of the first over, Rohit hoisted the first two balls of the next for maximums.
That set the tone for the fastest team 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 in Test cricket history. Though wickets fell at regular intervals in the process, Indian batsmen were undeterred. With just five sessions available to force a win, caution was not an option.
The fearless cricket yielded intended results, as declaring the innings at 285-9 in 34.4 overs, with possibility of squeezing in a few more overs before bad light would force stumps, India had Bangladesh on the mat, with the visitors reeling at 26-2 at close of play, still trailing by another 26 runs.
Exciting cricket is in prospect on the final day of the Kanpur Test.
Will India be able to force a memorable victory!
The records that tumbled, and the milestones reached
Fastest team 50 in Test cricket: Racing to 51/0 in 3 overs, India broke England’s record of 4.2 overs in the Nottingham Test against West Indies earlier this year.
Fastest team 100: At 103/1 in 10.1 overs, India broke their own record of 12.2 overs made in the Trinidad Test against West Indies in 2023.
Fastest team 150: With 155/3 in 18.2 overs, the home team broke their own record of 21.1 overs made in the Trinidad Test against West Indies in 2023.
Fastest team 200: At 201/4 in 24.2 overs, India broke Australia’s record of 28.1 overs made in the 2017 Test against Pakistan in Sydney.
Fastest team 250: With 250/5 in 30.1 overs, India broke England’s record of 34 overs in the Rawalpindi Test against Pakistan in 2022.
Virat Kohli breaches 27,000 international runs Mark: He became the fourth batter to reach 27,000 international runs, the others being Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara. He became the fastest to reach the landmark, in 594 innings, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar (623 innings), Kumar Sangakkara (648 innings) and Ricky Pointing (650 innings).
Sixes of first two balls faced: Rohit Sharma became only the fourth batter to hit sixes off their first two balls (off Khaled Ahmed) in a men’s Test innings. The others are Foffie Williams (off Jim Laker) in 1948, Sachin Tendulkar (off Nathan Lyon) in 2013 and Umesh Yadav (off George Linde) in 2019.
Ravindra Jadeja’s achieves landmark: He became the seventh Indian bowler to pick up 300 wickets in Test cricket. The others are Anil Kumble (619), Ravi Ashwin (524), Kapil Dev (434), Harbhajan Singh (417), Ishant Sharma (311) and Zaheer Khan (311).
He also became the second-fastest player in Test cricket to achieve the double milestone of 3,000 runs and 300 wickets, trailing only England’s Ian Botham. Jadeja reached this milestone in 74 Tests, just behind Ian Botham’s 72, becoming the 11th player worldwide to accomplish this remarkable feat.
He is the third Indian to achieve this unique record, joining the ranks of Kapil Dev and Ravichandran Ashwin. In reaching 300 Test wickets, he also became the fourth-fastest Indian to achieve the milestone of 300 wickets, following Ashwin (54 matches), Anil Kumble (66), and Harbhajan Singh (72).
Most sixes by a team: 96 sixes smashed by India in 2024 is the most maximums by a team in a calendar year in Test cricket, surpassing 89 by England in 2022, with 87 sixes by India in 2021 sitting in the third slot. India have possibly the second innings of the ongoing Kanpur Test and another seven to follow in the remainder of the year to add to the tally.
Over 1.2 million (12 lakh) Indians have travelled to the United States to date this year, a 35 percent increase over the same period in 2023
Figures released by the American Embassy in India regarding Indians travelling to the US are astounding and show a one-third increase from last year.
Following better understanding between the leaderships and consequential growing ties between the two countries, the two sides have set ambitious goals to improve and expedite the visa process.
The result, more than 1.2 million (12 lakh) Indians have travelled to the United States to date this year, a 35 percent increase over the same period in 2023. At least six million (60 lakh) Indians already have a non-immigrant visa to visit the United States, and each day, the US Mission is issuing thousands more.
According to a press release issued by the US Embassy and Consulates in India, the US Mission to India has opened an additional 250,000 visa appointments for Indian travellers, including tourists, skilled workers, and students.
The recently released new slots are expected to help hundreds of thousands of Indian applicants take timely interviews, facilitating travel, which is the backbone of the people-to-people ties that underpin the U.S.-India relationship, the release said.
The US Mission to India has already surpassed one million (10 lakh) non-immigrant visa applications for the second consecutive year.
“During our student visa season this summer, we continued to process record numbers, and all first-time student applicants were able to obtain an appointment at one of our five consular sections around India. We are now focused on bringing families together, connecting businesses, and facilitating tourism,” it added.
It quoted US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti as recently noting, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden set an ambitious goal to improve and expedite the visa process and I’m proud to say that we have delivered on that promise. Our consular teams at the embassy and four consulates work tirelessly to ensure that we meet the surging demand.”
For a month, starting today (Sunday), the VR Punjab, from its regular art gallery on the upper ground floor, down to the basement walls, and the outdoor landscape, has been converted into an extensive showcase, exhibiting 300-plus art installations, sculptures, paintings, and photographs, by young and talented art students and other artists from the region.
The installations are the works of students from Chandigarh University and Chitkara University, and contributions from the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, Sanskar Bharti Foundation, and other senior individual artists.
The Basement Art Project displays the works of artists from G.A.S.P., a group of visual & graphic artists building art on a platform where it is valued & accessible to all.
Curated under the Punjab Art Initiative, this third annual edition of the Public Art Festival is supported by Yuj Arts Foundation. This year’s theme, ‘Transcending Boundaries,’ inspires artists to create innovative artworks and sculptures that reflect their vision, imagination, and artistic talents, Ms.Sumi Gupta, curator of the Punjab Art Initiative, said on Sunday afternoon while briefing the media.
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema inaugurated the festival in the evening with a traditional lamp lighting ceremony and unveiling of the ‘Kala Car’, created in collaboration with the multidisciplinary artist Chitwan Singh Nanda, whose work is inspired by tradition and heritage.
Artist Chitwan Singh Nanda has recently set a world record by creating the largest-ever linguistic and agricultural representation of a state, using indigenous grains to showcase Punjab’s rich cultural heritage.
The formal inauguration was followed by an entertaining folk music performance, a live sand art show titled ‘The Timeless Journey of Art’, by Cannes 2015 nominee and Asia’s Got Talent S1 semi-finalistNitish Bhartianda musical performanceby Anmol Salh of Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fame.
The inaugural evening also featured a live ‘Raga Mala’ miniature painting session by Anubhav Som, illustrating Indian musical ragas. Complementing this was an interactive live painting workshop by 15 student artists from Chandigarh university.
Over the next month, VR Punjab will transform into a hub of artistic celebration, with installations, fine art, photography, exhibitions, workshops, young artists competition, art cinema screening, and an artisanal bazaar.
Under initiatives, such as the Artist Mentorship Program, emerging talent will be provided opportunities to learn from established professionals.
Sumi Gupta further shared that the festival is a dynamic convergence of diverse artistic expressions, talents, and projects. From Kadambari Misra’s powerful “Iconic Women Project”, that highlights the unsung female icons of history through photography and storytelling, to immersive works in abstract art, the event offers a profound exploration of creativity and heritage.
Additionally, art displays by Padma Shri Shyam Sharma, Prof. Bheem Malhotra, Prof. Ranjan Mallik, Gurmeet Goldie and Prof. Ashima Banker contribute a spectrum of styles and perspectives, enriching the festival with their unique creations.
The Punjab Literature Festival is set to be one of the prominent highlights of the festival, featuring a distinguished lineup of authors for the audience to connect with. Among them are Sahitya Akademi and Mira Award-winning writer Shri Nand Kishore Acharya, Yash Bharti Award-winning author Khushbir Singh Shaad, and celebrated authors like Durjoy Dutta and Dr. Ishinna Sadana, Ms Gupta added.
All Test players rested; Sanju Samson retained; Seamer all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy & pacer Harshit Rana may get cap; Spinner Varun Chakaravarthy returns to squad
Abhishek Sharma only specialist opener in the side; Exclusion of in-form openers Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan huge surprise
The national men’s cricket selection committee has picked India’s 15-member squad, led by Suryakumar Yadav, for the upcoming three-match IDFC FIRST Bank T20I series against Bangladesh. The series commences immediately after the ongoing two-Test series. The venues will be Gwalior (Oct 6, Sunday), New Delhi (Oct 9, Wednesday) and Hyderabad (Oct 12, Saturday).
All the Test players have been rested in view of the upcoming 3-match Test home series against New Zealand starting mid-October and apparently to test the bench strength in T20Is.
IPL 2024’s fastest bowler Mayank Yadav has been rewarded with a national call-up for his pace and accuracy. He bowled consistently with 150 kmph-plus speeds in the IPL, his top speed being 156.7 kmph, and earned two player of the match awards before his campaign ended midway through the tournament due to an abdominal injury.
Despite two straight ducks in the last away series against Sri Lanka, wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson has been retained. The other wicketkeeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma also makes a comeback, though the first choice may still be Samson, basis his impressive performances in the Duleep Trophy in which he scored 196 runs at an average of 49 in his four innings.
The squad announcement also marks the return of so-called mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, who last played for India in the T20 World Cup 2021.
Big-hitting top order batsman Abhishek Sharma, who missed the Sri Lanka T20Is, also finds a place in the squad, along with Rinku Singh. He is the only specialist opening batsman in the squad with Yashaswi Jaiswal and Shubhman Gill, doing Test duty, being rested.
The exclusion from the squad of two other specialist in-form opening batsmen available for selection, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan, comes as a huge surprise and could leave the selectors and the team management open to criticism. Both put on an impressive show in the recently concluded Duleep Trophy campaign earlier this month and could have been deserving fits in the line-up.
Gaikwad, who scored 77* and 49 in the T20I series in Zimbabwe in July, smashed 232 runs in the Duleep Trophy for India C, laced with two fifties.
Ishan, who last donned the Indian jersey in December 2023 and later lost his BCCI central contract over not following a board mandate, returned to red-ball cricket with a century in the Buchi Babu tournament last month, before hammering 111 for India C in Duleep Trophy.
Among others in the squad who could make their international debut during the series are seam-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and pacer Harshit Rana.
The squad is packed with allrounders, the others being Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag and Washington Sundar.
Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi also features in the 15-member squad. Arshdeep Singh will lead the pace bowling attack with Mayank Yadav and Harshit Rana.
This rare phenomenon happened in Alabama, USA in December 2023, when a woman with two uteruses delivered “twin” baby girls, one each from the two wombs.
Less than a year later, in a similar pregnancy, classified as truly one in a million, a woman in northwest China gave birth to “twins” from both wombs earlier this month.
South China Morning Post, quoting the China National Radio reported that the woman, surnamed Li, gave birth to a boy and a girl in early September at Xi’an No 4 Hospital in Shaanxi province when she was eight and a half months pregnant.
The newspaper reported that typically, women with two uteruses do not become aware of their rare condition till they get pregnant. During their pregnancies, they are at an increased risk of repeated miscarriages, premature birth, underdevelopment of the foetus, and post-partum haemorrhages.
Li, whose age has not been revealed, had been pregnant before but suffered a miscarriage at 27 weeks due to unidentified factors, the report said.
After Li became pregnant in January, doctors at the Xi’an hospital devised a meticulous plan to ensure her safety.
The babies were born healthy, with the boy weighing 3.3kg and the girl 2.4kg. The doctors performed a caesarean operation during the birth.
However, in the earlier case, for the Alabama woman, Kelsey Hatcher, it was her fourth pregnancy with a single baby being delivered each time. When Kelsey walked into the Birmingham Hospital of the University of Alabama (UAB), she had a pregnancy classified as truly one in a million: She had a rare double uterus and was pregnant with a baby on each side, according to UAB News.
With the help of UAB, she delivered two healthy “twin” girls 10 hours apart — and on separate days.
After 20 combined hours of labour, she gave birth to two girls, Baby A born December 19 and Baby B born December 20, UAB News added.
Stays counting of votes till all vandalism and defacements reversed
DU to pay all expenses incurred by the civic agencies to fix the damage, with liberty to recover the amount from the candidates
Crores spent on elections; money power “corrupting students”; not a festival of “laundering of money”, court observes
With strict guidelines being enforced by the Election Commission of India to tone down cacophony and display of publicity materials during Lok Sabha and assembly elections, a common man hardly realises that an election is running, till it is over. Gone are the days when the entire populace, willingly or unwillingly, was exposed to the full blast of highly visible and noisy elections.
But such guidelines are generally thrown to the winds in the students’ union elections to universities and colleges across the country with blatant defacement of public properties with banners, posters, pamphlets, graffiti, etc, uncontrolled use of vehicles, hooliganism and an unabashed display of money power.
Signalling that enough is enough, the Delhi high Court has come down heavily on the Delhi University for turning a blind eye to the flagrant violations of the Lyngdoh committee recommendations and orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the conduct of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections on the university campus and affiliated colleges.
The court was responding to an application filed by advocate Prashant Manchanda seeking action against prospective candidates of DUSU elections and student political outfits involved in damaging, defacing, soiling, or destroying public property. The application was filed in a plea disposed of in 2019 seeking complete ban on the defacement of public property of DUSU poll candidates.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice designate Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela on Thursday while allowing polling, which was held on Friday, barred the counting of the votes on the university campus as well as colleges till the court is “satisfied” that the posters, hoardings, graffiti spray paint are removed, and the (damage to) public property is restored.
It also ordered that all expenses incurred by the civic agencies (to fix the damage) shall be paid by the varsity, and DU will have the liberty to recover it from the candidates.
Widespread defacement of public property has been reported during the DUSU students’ union elections. The Delhi civic bodies, during the hearings, submitted in the high court that more than 16,000 boards, 200,000 posters and pamphlets, and 28,500 banners had been removed during the elections between September 13 and September 25.
Taking the university authorities to task, the bench observed: “It is your failure. It has happened due to lack of supervision by the university. You are not doing anything; you are not monitoring anything. You are supposed to have a system in place, but you do not have anything in place. Private people brought (this issue) to our notice. DU was merrily going around, and not taking a stand. You are allowing standards to fall.”
On the previous day of hearing, on Wednesday, the court had asked the Delhi University to take stringent action against the candidates indulging in vandalism and defacing public property during the ongoing students’ union elections, calling the situation “worse than the general elections.”
The bench observed that prima facie, expenditure in crores has been incurred by the candidates contesting the polls and stated that the use of this amount of money in students’ union elections is corrupting the students “right at the inception.”
“What is the use of having this election? It’s a festival of democracy, not a festival of laundering of money. This is laundering of money which is taking place over here,” the court remarked.
Among other guidelines, the Lyngdoh Committee, set up by the Supreme Court in 2005 to ensure free and fair conduct of university elections, states that the maximum permitted expenditure per candidate in university elections be ₹5,000 and that the election of a candidate not complying with norms be nullified.
The bench further observed: “Your system has not worked. You should have kept an eye on expenses incurred. Your internal mechanism has failed… Certain officials will have to be held accountable. Your VC should have stepped in. You should have formed some committee. There are flagrant violations not on a minuscule scale but on a large scale.”
