Like, in Sunday's match at the Adelaide Oval, a lot of reasons will be apparent for Pakistan's loss, all that in hindsight, of course. So, after watching the match, that India won by 75 runs, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan analysed Pakistan's performance and drew up reasons for their loss.
Relieved after notching up his first hundred in close to two years, Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara thanked A team coach Rahul Dravid for reassuring him that there was "nothing wrong" with his technique during the prolonged lean patch.
India's bowling coach Bharat Arun is confident that the team's speed merchants Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav will take up the challenge to maintain speed as well as be accurate in the upcoming three-Test series against Sri Lanka, starting on August 12 at Galle.
The eight IPL franchises will submit their 'Player Retention Lists' on Friday, January 10. A look at the players likely to be retained.
'India's military posture has become significantly stronger than China's on the 3,500-kilometre Line of Actual Control.' 'This is enhancing confrontation between the two sides,' points out Ajai Shukla.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Delhi Daredevils snapped their five-match losing streak with a comfortable six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad to keep their hopes alive of making it to the play-offs, in the Indian Premier League, at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi, on Tuesday.
According to industry experts, television has lost the young urban viewer for English or Hindi shows. Urvi Malvania finds out what is making more and more of them turn to digital platforms like Voot and Hotstar.
India's batting great Virender Sehwag on Tuesday announced his retirement from international cricket and the Indian Premier League.
The domestic season-ending five-day Irani Cup game between newly crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the Rest of India, commencing in Mumbai from Sunday, will provide fringe players a good opportunity to stake claims for the national team. The first class match is the last occasion for hopefuls from both ranks to impress the five-member national selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil before attention shifts totally to the T20 format, commencing with the ICC World T20 Championships. With the country expected to play over 15 Test matches post Indian Premier League till the end of next season, this match is the ideal platform for these players to strengthen their claims for the long Test haul. Mumbai, who clinched the Ranji crown for the 41st time last week by defeating Saurashtra by an innings, have a settled combination led by wicket keeper batsman Aditya Tare. They appear to be better prepared than the motley bunch of Rest of India, being led by Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha. However, they would take the Rest of India lightly at their own peril as the latter have a good bowling attack at their command even without originally named Barinder Sran and Nathu Singh who have been injured and replaced by Ankit Rajpoot and Anureet Singh, according to their coach Ashish Kapoor.
Newly appointed Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shahryar Khan wants cricketing "powerhouse" India to encourage "democracy" in the functioning of the ICC after being forced to let BCCI have the control of the governing body along with England and Australia.
With the cricket world still mourning the tragic death of Phillip Hughes, the first Test between India and Australia next week was on Saturday put off to an unspecified date and might even be cancelled to pay homage to the young batsman.
China on Tuesday said border talks with India have yielded "initial results", enabling the two neighbours to properly handle their differences over the vexed boundary issue and maintain peace along the frontier.
Ponting shrugged off Australia's injury worries and the idea of there being risk in rushing Smith and Warner into the team.
It will be a battle of survival for the two national captains as Virat Kohli's struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore square off against a fledgling Pune Supergiants led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in an IPL encounter for the bottom-rung teams in Bengaluru on Saturday. With five defeats in seven games, RCB are currently placed at a lowly seventh spot in the table with four points while Pune are just a notch above in sixth spot courtesy their third win against Delhi Daredevils, on Thursday. It has been a tough journey for the two superstars of Indian cricket as their franchises have dished one disappointing performance after another. RCB with perhaps the most intimidating batting line-ups has had to taste defeat because of a pedestrian bowling attack that has failed to defend 180 plus scores in most of the matches.
The IPL, all of a sudden, may have some catching up to do with the Big Bash.
'Instead of isolation, India should respond militarily to every act of terrorism assessed to have come from across the border, unilaterally declare Pakistan a State that supports terrorism and cease all economic dealings with it.'
'In the last one year, it looks like there were bad things that didn't take place, and there were good things that didn't take place,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
George Bailey stepped down as Australia's Twenty20 captain on Sunday, saying that he wants to focus on his Test career.
Led by the in-form Cheteshwar Pujara, India 'A' will eye revenge for the ODI series loss when they take on a confident West Indies 'A' in the unofficial three-Test series, starting at the Gangotri Glades, in Mysore, on Wednesday.
'The Ganga must be kept above all divisive politics,' says Uma Bharti.
Narendra Modi's engagement at the upcoming BRICS Summit in Brazil will be keenly watched as the prime minister will interact with some of the world's most powerful leaders. The summit to be held in Fortaleza will also see the launch of the significant BRICS bank whose idea was mooted by India. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt gives a lowdown on Modi's first major international rendezvous.
Rajneesh Gupta surveys the cricketing milestones from the Mohali Test.
Ajit Wadekar recalls how India turned the tables on the the West Indies and won a historic victory.
If the aim is to become a player with some strategic space of its own, not just in the Indian Ocean region but also in the adjoining region, then greater interaction with China is desirable, even necessary.
Visually impaired Srikanth Bolla is the CEO of Hyderabad-based Bollant Industries, an organisation that employs uneducated disabled employees to manufacture eco-friendly, disposable consumer packaging solutions.
'Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be anxious for a farewell visit to Washington in October,' says retired Ambassador K C Singh, 'but bending backwards on America's PRISM policy is going to earn him scorn at home and contempt abroad.'
'Clearly, from the Indian viewpoint, the US retrenchment from Asia cannot be happening as good news.' 'The abandonment of the US' pivot to Asia exposes the US-Indian partnership to be a mere transactional relationship,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The two nations share a problem of corporate debt gone bad that is so large and opaque.
'Ultimately the plan is to have 15 players who are fit and doing decently well, and according to the demands you can feature the best eleven that suits'
'Europe can be discussed on a golf course...' 'North Korea? What do I care what the man with the bad haircut does?'
China's obsession with exports and electronics assembly can also be attributed to having learned from the Singaporean textbook.
'Modi as the PM of the country has to take everybody on board and deliver on good governance. That is his responsibility. In that talking alone won't help, he's working.' Commerce Minister Dr Nirmala Sitharaman tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com how the Modi government plans to change India.
Manish Sabharwal is chairman of TeamLease, which has helped hire 1.4 million sales and customer service reps and logistics employees such as couriers for companies across India since it was founded in 2002.
'For all practical purposes, the game ended at the break. The Irish bowlers had neither the pace nor the skill to compete against the Indian line-up; the lack of swing further blunted any edge they could have brought to the contest.'
A sensational interview on India-China ties, with the man most qualified to answer.
Shubham Kumar Gautam, son of a farmer and a Super 30 student, recounts how, in a journey laced with perseverance, grit and determination, he achieved what seemed impossible.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Friday