Wrestling team for Ulaanbaatar Open named
Men: Freestyle: Aman Sehrawat, Rahul (57kg), Udit (61kg), Rohit (65kg), Vishal Kaliraman (70kg), Jaideep (74kg), Amit (79kg), Ashish (86kg), Deepak Punia (92kg), Vicky (97kg), Dinesh (125kg); Greco Roman: Anil Mor (55kg), Suraj (60kg), Chetan (63kg), Neeraj (67kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg), Nishant Phogat (77kg), Prince (82kg), Karan Kamboj (87kg), Nitesh (97kg), Prem (130kg).
Women: Neelam (50kg), Antim Panghal (53kg), Pushpa (55kg), Neha (57kg), Muskan (59kg), Manisha (62kg), Shiksha (65kg), Monika (68kg), Harshita (72kg), Reetika (76kg).
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Hindustan Times
18 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Joe Root brushes past bad blood in a heated Test series, wins hearts with rare on-field gesture for Karun Nair
Karun Nair hasn't had the easiest return to life on the international stage, not quite able to match his production and consistency on the domestic level. In the first three matches of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, Karun got a handful of starts but was never able to convert to a big one, forcing the team management to drop him, before turning back to him for the fifth and final Test match. Karun Nair receives a pat on his back from Joe Root after registering his first Test 50+ score since 2016.(PTI) As the players walked off for stumps on Day 1, Karun on 52*, broadcast cameras picked up the Indian batter receiving a nice gesture from English batter Joe Root, one of the modern batting greats in Test cricket, as he commended Nair for his solid innings thus far. Root, who has been busy breaking records in this series, understood the gravity of the moment and how much it might have meant for Karun to finally come good on the faith shown in him during this series. Drop down the order does the trick for Karun Nair finally made his chance count while batting at number five, registering only his second career 50+ score in Test cricket, his first since that famous 303* in Chennai in 2016. It was a fine hand on Day 1 at the Oval, in green, overcast, seaming conditions that saw Indian batters not able to put on any runs of significance — all except Karun, who finally took a start and converted it to a milestone. It has been a long and arduous road back to international cricket for Karun, who switched from Karnataka to Vidarbha in the domestic circuit, finding consistent success with both, before firmly landing on the radar for re-selection with an impressive IPL campaign. It has been a difficult journey, and a non-linear one, but Karun's persistence earned him a literal pat on the back from one of the greats. However, job not quite done for Karun, as he tried to push India closer to the 300 mark alongside Washington Sundar when the pair return to bat on Day 2 at the Oval. India currently stand on 204/6 after the first day's play, a respectable but vulnerable total in conditions that are the bowling-friendliest the series has seen thus far.
India.com
18 minutes ago
- India.com
1 in 32,768! India's Unbelievable Toss Losing Streak Hits 15 In Final Test vs England
In a sequence that defies probability and borders on the bizarre, Team India scripted an unprecedented low in international cricket by losing their 15th consecutive toss across all formats. The latest blow came at the Oval in London, where England's stand-in captain Ollie Pope won the toss and elected to bowl first in the fifth and final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. India's Test captain Shubman Gill, who has now lost five tosses in a row in this series alone, seemed unflustered on the surface but couldn't escape the growing scrutiny around this strange streak. The odds of losing 15 straight tosses, each with a 50-50 chance, stand at a staggering 1 in 32,768 — a statistical improbability that has now become a stark reality. Unbelievable Toss Losing Streak Becomes Historic India's toss-losing run, which began in January 2025, includes 2 T20Is, 8 ODIs, and now 5 Test matches. The last time an Indian skipper won a toss was during a T20I against England in Rajkot under Suryakumar Yadav. Since then, it's been a never-ending downward spiral of coin-flip defeats, culminating in a world record that no team would want. Previous records include the West Indies' 12 consecutive toss losses in 1999 and England's 11 between 2022 and 2023. India's current streak now sits atop that unfortunate list. Oval Test Begins with Four Changes for Both Sides With conditions overcast and some green on the pitch, Pope had no hesitation in bowling first — especially with swing likely to aid the pacers early on. "Bit overcast, no-brainer to have a bowl on this pitch,' Pope said after winning the toss. 'We bat deep. We're not here to settle for a draw, we want to win it." England made four changes, including resting regular captain Ben Stokes due to a shoulder injury. Also missing were Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, and Brydon Carse. New faces like Jacob Bethell and Jamie Smith added youthful exuberance to the lineup. India responded with their own shuffle. Out went star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, all-rounder Shardul Thakur, and batter Cheteshwar Pujara. In came promising talents: Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, and Prasidh Krishna. 'We don't mind losing the toss if we win the game,' Shubman Gill stated. 'The wicket looks good despite the overcast. If we can put up a good total in the first innings, we're confident the bowlers will deliver.' India's Playing XI: A Blend of Youth and Experience Batters: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Karun Nair All-rounders/WK: Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar Bowlers: Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj England's XI saw Joe Root return to form alongside Pope, with the exciting Harry Brook and Zak Crawley forming a solid top order. The bowling unit, led by Chris Woakes and supported by Atkinson, Overton, and Tongue, looks lethal in English conditions. Can Gill Break the Curse? While losing tosses doesn't directly impact the scoreboard, it can influence match strategy — especially in Tests, where overhead conditions and pitch freshness play a major role. For Shubman Gill, a captain yet to win a toss, the mental challenge grows with every flip. However, Gill's positive outlook and India's consistent team performances offer hope. The side has come agonizingly close to wins throughout the series — often missing out by fine margins. With this being the series decider, the team will be keen to push that extra 5-10% Gill spoke of and finish on a high.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Who are India's next generation of Badminton stars?
Lakshya Sen was twice in a position to grab a medal in badminton at the Paris 2024 Olympics. In the semi-final, he lost to Viktor Axelsen after seeming in control of the match early on. A win would have taken him to the final and a guaranteed medal. In the match for a bronze, Sen led his opponent by a game before losing the next two. Those defeats summed up 2024 for Indian badminton, as a year in which the country's premier badminton players appeared to have lost their lustre. There were no singles titles for any player—Sen has won only one title since the Olympics, the Syed Modi India International in December, and hasn't made it past any quarter-finals this year. 'He would have won more, but the competitive environment is not set for him. He is brilliant, but it's not his fault (for not winning more)," says Parupalli Kashyap, a former world No.6 who has now pivoted to coaching. 'His work ethic and attitude are great. He has pulled off some amazing matches in the past. But if you see now, his performances have dropped considerably." Sen follows a generation of badminton players who, under the tutelage of Pullela Gopi Chand achieved considerable success, turning India into a badminton powerhouse. In 2022, Indian men won the Thomas Cup team event for the first time in its 70-odd-year history, showcasing an all-round strength and depth. Saina Nehwal won an Olympic bronze medal in 2012 London, P. V. Sindhu got two, a silver in 2016 Rio de Janeiro and a bronze in 2020 (held in 2021) Tokyo, ranking as high as No.2. Kidambi Srikanth was once world No.1, a silver medallist in the 2021 World Championships while H.S. Prannoy, once world No.6, finished third in the 2023 World Championships. But that was in the past. After a long gap now, no Indian player—male or female—features in the top 10 rankings. Sen, at No.17, is the highest while Sindhu, 30, is at No.15, having slid out of the top 10 in October last year. Srikanth, 32, and Prannoy, 33, are in the 30s in ranking as well. All of them are dealing with issues of fitness, motivation and consistency as the rigour of the sport takes a toll. Indian badminton seems to be undergoing a transition, from a generation of players who were consistently in the top 10, won a host of titles and catalysed the sport to waiting for the next lot to make a mark. With the World Championships starting 25 August, coincidentally in Paris, the venue for last year's Olympics, the sport is looking at new beginnings. 'At this point of my career, each and every win matters," Prannoy told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website after a first-round win in the China Open this month. 'The level of men's singles has gone really high, so winning each round is getting tougher. The average age in men's singles has become 22-23 all of a sudden; a lot of fresh faces, we don't know what their game is. So it's tough to be a veteran of this," added Prannoy, who has lost in the first or second round of all his 11 tournaments this year. Looking Ahead Ayush Shetty, 20, won the US Open, a BWF Super 300 category event, in June and is currently the second highest ranked Indian male. Earlier this week, Unnati Hooda, 17, beat Sindhu in the China Open. Vennala Kalagotla, 17, and Tanvi Sharma, 16, finished third in the Asian Junior Championships last Sunday in Indonesia. Malvika Bansod, 23, won a title at the Azerbaijan International last year, finished third at the US Open, and was runner-up at the Hylo Open in Germany. Anupama Upadhyaya, now 20, was a few years ago the world's top-ranked junior. These are just a few names of upcoming players, but it's also early days for them, competing in a bruising, physically taxing sport in which a Prannoy, 33, is considered a veteran. 'We are nimble-footed and have supple wrists, but this sport is tough for Indian bodies where few like Sindhu have lasted largely injury free," adds Kashyap. While there has been a substantial increase in the number of children taking to the sport over the last decades, along with the spread of infrastructure and support from parents, badminton remains an expensive sport and opportunities to succeed at the elite level is limited. Some of these challenges even prompted the national coach Gopi Chand to recently say that the sport should be pursued only by the wealthy, because it does not offer job security or a guaranteed success. In Guntur, where Vennala grew up, her father Kalagotla Srinivasa Reddy was keen that she pick up a sport. The choice was between tennis and badminton, but when Reddy went to the tennis courts, he got intimidated by the fancy cars parked outside. Badminton became an easier option, which the child soon fell in love with. 'My father was a ball badminton player with ambitions of participating in the Olympics," Vennala says, back home from Solo, Indonesia. 'But since ball badminton is not part of the Olympics, he could not, but was keen that my brother and I follow that Olympic dream." The bronze medal, which has got her a direct entry into the BWF World Junior Championships in October, is a reward for all the 'sacrifices, early morning sessions," she says, bringing in the motivation to do better. 'It's the start of something bigger," she says over the phone. Passing the Baton Kashyap believes that the sport is not being organised in a way to optimise results, with 'too many heads working for a cause that does not make sense". Top players train at different centres, often lacking in adequate sparring partners, which would help in raising their standards. There is no second string of players getting funded consistently, he adds, despite efforts of not-for profit agencies like Olympic Gold Quest, GoSports and Reliance Foundation, which supports Vennala, among others. The lockdown in 2020, 2021, also made a debilitating difference to continuity, according to Nikhil Kanetkar, who runs an eponymous coaching centre in Pune. 'Every day of training matters. Not being able to play for a year and more was difficult. It put us back. Maybe in other countries, they were holed up in their (training) centres. That perhaps gave them an advantage." 'For me as a coach, for example, I had to start from zero. We lost a generation of players," adds Kanetkar, who was Gopi Chand's contemporary as a player in the late 1990s and 2000s. He says that players like Nehwal, Srikanth and Sindhu raised the sport to such a high standard in the country that it's difficult to maintain that level seamlessly. 'We should have had a backup (of players) to them, four-five years ago maybe." According to him, players do not have the patience to stay in one coaching centre for longer, which affects their growth. 'One national centre, like in Guwahati (National Centre of Excellence), would probably make sense, but all top players have to be there together. The system has to gear to that, get the best coaches, how China does it," Kanetkar adds. Badminton in India is at a crossroad, but everyone agrees that with the depth of talent available, the transition will happen, even if it takes a little longer. 'What I learnt is to be happy, but to never get satisfied," says Vannala. Arun Janardhan is a Mumbai-based journalist who covers sports, business leaders and lifestyle. He posts @iArunJ.
