India vs West Indies 1st ODI at Kochi: West Indies likely XI

October 8, 2014

Oct 8: India will face West Indies in the opening encounter of the five-match One-Day International (ODI) series at Kochi on Wednesday.

The visitors are missing two of their biggest players in Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine, which lessens their chances of victory. However, the side still has plenty of firepower to beat any team on their day. Sameer Jhatakes a look at the likely combination that West Indies will field.

ODI KochiTop order: Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Smith will open the batting for West Indies. Both players are no strangers to Indian conditions having played the Indian Premier League (IPL). Smith has been a key player for MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) this season, and it will be interesting to see if he can replicate that form for his national side too. Like Smith, Lendl Simmons too enjoys Indian pitches and would look to unsettle Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami in the early overs. Darren Bravo, who said that he would closely observe the Indian bowlers and have a plan before stepping out onto the field expected to come in at No three.

“In the last couple of years I have played quite a lot against India. The Indian bowling lineup has been changing time and again; there are some new bowlers on the scene now. It’s very important that I look at the clips of their bowlers and try and understand the way they go about things and have a very clear idea what exactly it is that I want to do when I step on the field.”, he was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.

Middle order:Captain Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard are the two all-rounders who will form the crux of the Windies middle-order. Both batsman are capable of hitting plenty of sixes, and MS Dhoni and his bowlers need to plan and execute well in order to get rid of them. In case any of them fails, the responsibility will lie with Denesh Ramdin and Darren Sammy to complete unfinished business. Ramdin scored 169 in the third ODI against Bangladesh, and even scored 102 in the warm up match against India A.

Lower order:Jason Holder who can hit a cricket ball a long way, is expected to come in at No 8. He had a good season for Barbados Tridents, and even scored a quickfire 52 in the warm up match against India A. His inclusion adds incredible depth to their batting line-up. The lanky Sulieman Benn is expected to fill the spinner’s slot in the absence of Narine. Benn did well against Bangladesh, but it remains to be seen whether he can replicate that performance against the talented Indian batting line-up. Kemar Roach and Ravi Rampaul would occupy the last two slots, and try and do justice to West Indies’ rich fast bowling legacy by picking up some wickets.

West Indies’ likely XI:Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo (c), Jason Holder, Sulieman Benn, Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: On the first day of the New Year 2020, Hardik Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share a photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The 26-year-old shared three pictures and a short clip on the social media platform. In one photo, Stankovic can be seen flaunting her ring.

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show 'Bigg Boss 8'.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Milan, Mar 28: Juventus star Paulo Dybala revealed how he "struggled to breathe" after contracting coronavirus which has killed over 9,000 people in Italy.

The Argentine international announced last Saturday he was one of three Juventus players to catch the virus along with Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi, who both had no symptoms.

"I feel better now after some strong symptoms," the 26-year-old Dybala told JTV channel.

"A couple of days ago I was not well, I felt heavy and after five minutes of movement I had to stop because I was struggling to breathe.

"Now I can move and walk to start trying to train, because when I tried in the past few days I started to shake too much.

"I gasped for air and as a result I couldn't do anything, after five minutes I was already very tired, I felt the body heavy and my muscles hurt.

"Now I'm fine. My fiancee Oriana (Sabatini) has also overcome the symptoms."

Dybala has scored 13 goals in all competitions this season, including in league leader's Juventus's last game against Inter Milan before Serie A and all sport in Italy was suspended.

"The goal against Inter was the greatest emotion, (Aaron) Ramsey provided the perfect assist - it's a pity that there was no public," added Dybala.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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