SPORTS

Rohit Sharma smashed his way into record books again when he completed 37 runs in the 1st T20 against Sri Lanka on Thursday (February 24). 

Opening the innings with Ishan Kishan after Sri Lanka opted to bowl first, Rohit scored 44 off 32 balls that included 2 fours and 1 six respectively. 

Rohit is now the top-scorer in T20 cricket, going past Martin Guptill, who has 3299 runs to his name. Rohit was on number 3 in the list of men batters with most runs in T20 cricket behind Guptill and former Indian captain Virat Kohli (3296 runs). 

The former captain of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli has been making news in recent months due to a succession of resignations from various captaincy positions. The most recent one came from the Test side, and former India cricketer Saba Karim detailed how Kohli compelled the BCCI to take certain actions while handling this issue.

The Test and T20I squads for India's forthcoming home series against Sri Lanka were revealed last week by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. They also used the occasion to announce Rohit Sharma's appointment as the new permanent skipper in the longest format of the game.

Karim stated in a video on the YouTube channel Khelneeti that the Indian cricket board had no choice but to put their foot down and make Sharma the Test cricket captain ahead of the Sri Lanka series.

When Suresh Raina announced his international retirement after MS Dhoni on Aug 15 2020, he thought he would play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for at least three-four years before calling it quits one last time.

His international retirement at the age of 33 had shocked everyone but then people understood the rationale behind his decision. He hadn’t worn the India jersey in the last two years and given the intense competition, he wasn’t expected to make a comeback to the Indian team.

Two years down the line and the 35-year-old cricketer is left with nowhere to play. After being snubbed by CSK in the IPL 2022 mega auction, Raina, all of sudden, finds himself in a precarious situation.

Raina has stopped playing domestic cricket for his state Uttar Pradesh and his sole focus was on representing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the next few years but after the recent snub he has nowhere to go.

Fraught with embarrassment over interviews given by senior India wicket-keeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha and pained at a tweet posted by him sharing a screenshot of a series of 'insulting' WhatsApp messages the cricketer received from a journalist, the BCCI is calling for a "thorough investigation".

Well-placed individuals in the know told media that "the matter cannot be put to rest until every single detail of what Saha has said in the interview and the tweet he shared is looked into".

The BCCI intends to delve deep into the crisis and also find out if any other cricketer has gone through a similar experience. "Saha is a contracted cricketer of the BCCI. The onus is on the Board to not let its own player down. That aside, if there is any kind of a nexus at work here, one has to look into it," say officials tracking these developments.

Uttar Pradesh left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar, who was the only new face in the Indian team for the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka announced by chief selector Chetan Sharma on Saturday, has been on the radar of the national selectors for a while now due to his consistent performances on the domestic circuit.

In 46 first-class games for Services and UP, Saurabh Kumar has taken 196 wickets @ 24.15, 16 five-wicket hauls, and six 10-wicket match hauls. In the 2018-19 season, the 28-year-old took 51 wickets in 10 games in the Ranji Trophy, and 19 in the Duleep Trophy.