India v/s Australia: Selectors retain same squad, no place for injured Shami, Rohit

India v/s Australia: Selectors retain same squad, no place for injured Shami, Rohit

Indian team for the first two Test matches of the upcoming 4-match Test series against Australia was announced on Tuesday. Lead by Virat Kohli, the same team that played in the one-off Test against Bangladesh will face the Aussie challenge beginning on February 23 in Pune.

Barring all surprises the same 16-member squad has been retained. Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav who came on board after leggie Amit Mishra got injured, will support the spin attack led by Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav.

Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav will take care of the pace attack.

Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel failed to make space in the team for the tour. Kohli will rely on his consistent performers Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, and Wriddhiman Saha with Karun Nair and KL Rahul adding to bench strength.

This could also be an opportunity for Hardik Pandya to make his Test debut.

The first Test in the series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy commences at Pune's Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on February 23 to be followed by the next three games at Bengaluru (March 4-8), Ranchi (March 16-20) and Dharamshala (March 25-29).

The Australian squad, led by Steve Smith, arrived in Mumbai ahead of the four-match rubber and will play a three-day warm-up game against an India A squad led by Hardik Pandya at the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium from February 17-19 before proceeding to Pune.

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Team India Squad

Virat Kohli (Captain), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, and Hardik Pandya.http://rajasthanimagzine.blogspot.in

Sasikala convicted but loyalist Palanisamy elevated as legislative leader, to meet Governor

Sasikala convicted but loyalist Palanisamy elevated as legislative leader, to meet Governor 

With All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (AIADMK) general secretary V.K. Sasikala standing disqualified to take over as the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the party leadership has appointed Edapadi K. Palanisamy as the new legislative leader. Caretaker Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam has been expelled from the party. As an aftermath to this development, Palanisamy can meet the TN Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao and stake the claim to form the government in the state.

The political stalemate in the state, however, looks far from getting resolved as this would leave chances of a toss up between Palanisamy and Panneerselvam if the governor asks for proof of majority in the assembly. Earlier in the day, Sasikala suffered a major jolt after the Supreme Court upheld the trial court's judgment convicting her in the 19-year-old disproportionate assets case against her.

Late J. Jayalalithaa, along with Sasikala and two others, were involved in the DA case that goes back two decades.

The Bengaluru trial court had convicted Jayalalithaa on September 27, 2014, and ordered her four years of imprisonment along with Rs. 100 crore fine, with Rs. 10 crores fine on the other three. The conviction disqualified her as an MLA requiring her to step down as the chief minister. She, however, returned as the chief minister after Karnataka High Court on May 11, 2015, acquitted her and the others in the case.

300 off 72 balls! Mohit Ahlawat becomes the first batsman to score a triple ton in T20s

At an age when all kinds of records are getting broken in cricket, Mohit Ahlawat, a wicket-keeper batsman from Delhi, did something extraordinary in the shortest format of the game. And this achievement is going to make Chris Gayle and Rohit Sharma, who are widely regarded as ruthless T20 batsmen, jealous.

Ahlawat smashed an unbelievable triple century in a T20 game to become the first man in the world to achieve this unique feat.\

The 21-year-old wicket-keeper, playing for Maavi XI against Friends XI at Lalita Park in Delhi, remained not out on 300 off 72 balls, which included 39 sixes and 14 fours. He hit five consecutive sixes in the last over of the game and leapfrogged from a score of 270 to 300.

Before Ahlawat, Dhanuka Pathirana held the record of highest score in a T20 game as the former Lankan domestic player scored 277 runs off just 72 balls in Lancashire’s Saddleworth League.

Ahlawat made his first-class debut in the previous season of Ranji Trophy for Delhi against Rajasthan.