Virat Kohli's nearly two-decade long agonising wait to lay his hands on an IPL trophy with Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be up against Shreyas Iyer's resolve to make first-time winners out of the tenacious Punjab Kings.
Harbhajan, however, felt the current crop of spinners lack aggression.
With this whimsical-yet-wired addition, the IPL is not just pushing the envelope -- it's rewriting the whole playbook. Who says tech can't be fun?
India take on Bangladesh in the first of the three-match T20I series in Gwalior, on Sunday.
The third Test at Lord's could well be the series' turning point. This isn't just about team combinations or tactical tweaks anymore. The pitch has emerged as a defining factor -- one that could tilt the balance of power in a contest hanging delicately at 1-1.
Virat Kohli had some strong words of support for young pacer Arshdeep Singh
Young Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh said that using variations, especially the slower ones, on a sticky wicket was the key to his success in the first T20 International against the West Indies on Friday.
Thirteen-year-old India U-19 cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi from Bihar is the youngest among the lot at Rs 30 lakh base price.
Maninder Singh, the talented left-arm spinner, was taken to cleaners with utter disdain, but he never faced public wrath.
Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant's woeful form with the bat and Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer's sublime touch have made Sunday's mid-table clash an engrossing contest -- one that could decisively shape the fortunes of either side as the IPL enters its business end.
Although India are playing a strong brand of 50-overs' cricket of late, they have some selection riddles to solve before they face Bangladesh in their opening match of the Champions Trophy.
'Bring out the speed guns, the pace battery has arrived,' BCCI captioned a video posted on its X handle.
'I think that's putting him under a lot of pressure, to compare him to the great Wasim Akram'
IMAGES from the 1st T20I played between India and England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Jofra Archer, after disappointing outings in the first two matches, bowled with great pace and accuracy and put the opposition on the back foot right from the word go.
Mohammed Shami's possible omission from the Indian Test squad for the England tour was doing the rounds for past one week but the eternal optimist would have loved to believe that those artistic wrists would be at work in the Old Blighty.
Punjab Kings' skipper Shreyas Iyer scored a brilliant 85 runs off 41 balls during his side's intra-squad practice match ahead of their IPL campaign.
The series already in their pocket, India will look to address their batting woes against an England team gunning for revenge after feeling hard-done by a debatable concussion substitute when the two teams clash in the fifth and final T20 International in Mumbai on Sunday.
'What Shami does is hit the seam and move the ball off the deck. It is dangerous as batsmen will not be able to guess easily which way the ball is going to move.'
On Sunday, he did well to kill the notion that left arm spinners are not effective against left arm batters as he clearly took out the Rajasthan southpaws for his first two wickets.
The official said Sukhvinder's brother Satpal possibly transferred Rs 2.50 lakh from Canada to his cousin Jitu Singh alias Jita in Gwalior to facilitate the November 7 killing.
'The main motive is adapting to the situations and demands of the team'
IMAGES from the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at the Chinnaswamy stadium, in Bengaluru on Friday
India will ponder whether they want to include Washington Sundar, who is quite handy with the bat or Kuldeep Yadav, who is a much better wicket-taking option.
Shreyas Iyer's tactical call to promote Josh Inglis to No 3 to counter Lucknow Super Giants' tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav proved vital in Punjab Kings' victory.
ICC ODI Player of the Year Afghanistan's Azamatullah Omarzai would be able to join Punjab Kings only on March 20.
India's young guns are fearless and mentally hardened by the IPL exposure. But true mettle will be tested when adversity strikes -- and this time, there will be no Kohli to stir up the crowd, no Rohit to deliver a captaincy masterstroke, and no Ashwin to conjure wickets out of nowhere.
Since Suryakumar took over as captain last year, India have hardly put a wrong but his own form has dipped.
Indian batter Abhishek Sharma and bowler Varun Chakaravarthy retained their career-best number two positions in the latest ICC T20I rankings.
Given India's batting collapses in the last two matches, key changes to the playing XI are anticipated.
Sanju Samson's technical weaknesses against express pace along with Rinku Singh's dip in form and fitness issues will be a concern for India
With Mahendra Singh Dhoni being the same player and no one to "bell the cat", CSK are in unusual mess with a mis-firing top-order where the skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad has had to give up his opening slot.
Captaon Suryakumar Yadav, all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel, the only member from the Test side, will be hoping for a strong outing so that India can apply some balm over the wounds from their recent home series defeat against New Zealand.
If Punjab goes for a flat deck, there is no guarantee that the bowling unit can defend anything in the 220 range, especially when KKR have the likes of Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, and Venkatesh Iyer in their ranks.
Sanju Samson's fighting hundred went in vain as Arshdeep Singh held his nerves in the final over
'A good headache (playing XI selection), we want to stick to our strengths.'
India's T20 World Cup campaign begins on June 5 against Ireland at the newly-constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. India play Pakistan on June 9.
The bowler bowled a quicker one and the batter tried to hack it, the ball only hit the pad and lobbed up, grazing his glove on the way before Klaasen dived forward to complete the catch in front of the stumps.
Raina also laid emphasis on how Kuldeep Yadav could be a lynchpin in India's success.
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