One of the favourite moments for any athlete across sports is when they make their debut for any team or in any competition, and for Delhi Capitals' new duo of Tushar Deshpande and Lalit Yadav, it will be a similar feat when they make their IPL debut this season.
India's captain Virat Kohli will have to think overtime about the balance of his squad, with a long tail, often bushy with runs, and just two openers -- one untested (Rohit Sharma) but very capable and another supremely talented (KL Rahul) but highly reluctant starter.
It remains to be seen how many rookies will be included for the 50-over competition keeping bubble-life and workload management in mind.
India and New Zealand will fight it out for the inaugural title at Southampton's Ageas Bowl
Veteran Indian pacer Irfan Pathan says the country's rise as a fast-bowling powerhouse is, for him, the highlight of the year while former batsman V V S Laxman picked the away Test triumph over Australia as his "favourite moment" of 2019. The trio of Umesh Yadav (23), Ishant Sharma (25) and Mohammed Shami (33) picked 81 wickets in Tests this year, averaging less than 20.
Rahane is playing back-to-back Ranji games after a long time and it would be a good opportunity for him to get some runs under his belt, especially at his home turf, before he heads for New Zealand with the India 'A' team.
Delhi's strong batting line up of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith and Pant himself will look to fire on all cylinders right from the opening game.
India's pacemen produced a terrific display of swing bowling to crush England by 151 runs in the second Test at Lord's on Monday, taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Rohit Sharma finally had his first stint of outdoor training after spending weeks indoors.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre and the states in the National Capital Region (NCR) to implement the orders of the panel on air quality management to curb air pollution while ruing that some sections of the media have 'portrayed' it as a 'villain' which wants to close down schools in New Delhi.
Veteran India speedster Mohammed Shami has recovered from his niggles and is fit to play the final Test against England in Manchester, starting September 10.
Chasing a target of 281, the West Indies, who looked to be in deep trouble at 55 for three when Ishant Sharma dismissed Adrian Barath (27), were 202 for 7 from 71.3 overs when bad light forced an early end to the match.
India had made 23 without loss in their second innings when play was stopped because of rain and bad light on third day of the second cricket Test against West Indies in Bridgetown on Thursday. Earlier, West Indies were bowled out for 190 in their first innings, with Ishant Sharma taking a career-best six for 55.
It will be interesting to see if India turn to Kuldeep Yadav for the second Test in Chennai, starting on Saturday, or continue with their strange tactics of freezing him out.
Bolstered by Shreyas Iyer's return, Delhi Capitals will look to maintain the form they showed in the first half of the season as they resume their IPL campaign against a struggling Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.
'... But India lacks solid backup to Bumrah, Shami, and Yadav. Bumrah is a fine paceman. He has very good durability. I think India needs to use him in such a way that he is as fresh as possible for each Test match.'
India's pace trio took less than three hours to rout the tourists after Mominul Haque's decision to bat backfired.
India's captain asserted that there was nothing wrong with India's choice of bowlers as they needed to score more runs in order to let their spinners call the shots.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, had India batted 'more sensibly', the hosts could have won the fifth and final ODI in Dharamsala and wrapped up the series by a bigger margin.
'The BJP is scared it may lose the Delhi municipal elections where they have been in power for the last 15 years.'
'If it was up to me, Dubai would always host a one off match like this WTC game. Neutral venue, fabulous stadium, guaranteed weather, excellent training facilities and a travel hub!' KP tweeted.
'Everyone in the contingent will be undergoing 14-day quarantine in India'
Roston Chase was disappointed to have thrown away his wicket after scoring 48 runs in the opening Test against India, unable to do justice to the advice given by batting legend Brian Lara.
Former wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel said India have all the 'bases covered' for the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand, to be played in Southampton from June 18 to 22.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel will be ready to exploit the conditions to the fullest.
For Kohli, a trophy-less cabinet doesn't do justice to the champion performer that he has been for a decade.
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