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By K.R. Nayar  Indian cricket was passing through a worrying phase. Amidst that gloom, a 15-year-old boy in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has brought some cheer. Despite India being the world champions in T20 cricket, a string of six defeats in this format required a break. Through a whirlwind 50 off just 19 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes, Sooryavanshi powered India to a seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe on July 23, 2026, in Harare. This half-century from the teenager is much beyond a match-winning knock. It has come from a boy who was kept out of the eleven for the ODI matches against England following scores of 14, 13 and 15 in the T20 series defeat to England. Doubts were raised over whether he would live up to his promise in international cricket. But the manner in which he batted against Zimbabwe, unleashing his aggressive skills, showed that he is special. He has now become the youngest player to hit a half-century in international cricket at 15 years and 118 days. In fac...

By K.R. Nayar Garry Sobers, the legendary cricketer from the West Indies, passed away two weeks before his 90 th birthday on July 17, 2026. Sobers was a hero I had heard about from the time I chose to play cricket, and when I became a journalist, I got to read a lot about him too. In countless interviews with international cricketers, his name would surface—almost inevitably, almost reverentially. For many, he was not just an idol; he was the benchmark of greatness. I never had the privilege of watching him play live—only through grainy videos—but was fortunate to spend time with those who have shared the field with him, and through them, Sobers came alive for me. One of them was the late former Indian all-rounder Syed Abid Ali. We used to spend a lot of time together in Sharjah and Dubai when he was the coach of the UAE team. I remember writing about his encounters with Sobers during the early 2000s, and they were published in the newspaper I worked for in the UAE. Once Ali w...

By K.R. Nayar  After India lost the second ODI match to England, there were numerous reports stating Rohit Sharma could be playing the last ODI of his career in the third and final match at Lord’s on Sunday. The selectors have not officially made any statement that Sharma has been informed about it. Is this then a calculated leak, or is it a story born out of reporters’ imagination? Almost every leading newspaper has carried this story, cautiously labelling it as speculation. Some reports claim that the selectors have already informed Sharma about a long-term transition plan, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill being groomed as the new opening pair for the future. If this is true, how did a private conversation between Sharma and the selectors become news? Is this how a great cricketer and a World Cup-winning captain is treated? You don’t whisper exits for such players—you must announce them with respect. No one knows how this news emerged, but this rumour is no longer a...

By K.R. Nayar  India’s women’s team thrashing England by 270 runs in the one-off Test match at the historic Lord’s Cricket Ground will be etched as a golden page in India’s cricket history. Becoming the winner of the first-ever women’s Test at Lord’s is indeed a great honour. It is akin to planting the tricolour at the summit of Mount Everest. One is reminded of the famous quote by Sunil Gavaskar after he crossed the 10,000-run barrier in Test cricket and had compared it to climbing Mount Everest, when he said: “There may be others who will follow, but the one who gets there first is remembered”. In the future, many women’s teams may go on to record Test victories at Lord’s, but India, who did it first through an emphatic win, will be remembered forever. All firsts, in sport, are indeed forever. Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and coach Amol Muzumdar need to be lauded for being able to shake off the ICC T20 World Cup exit defeat barely two weeks ago at the same venue (on June...

By K.R. Nayar Team India’s back-to-back T20I series losses is not just disappointing – it is alarming. Questions are piling up as to why this has happened, including defeats to Ireland and a meek surrender to England. The excuse given is that the selectors are experimenting, and hence the team deserves a long rope. That raises an important question: Is England the right place to conduct experiments without experienced or senior players? It is a fact that even experienced players have struggled to adapt to English conditions. Such humiliation and a string of defeats can only squash the confidence of all the players in this team.  It is worth examining the comments by both, coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shreyas Iyer, following the poor show.  Gambhir’s tone while answering queries from journalists was laced with dismissiveness. It seemed as if those questioning the repeated failures were overreacting. Gambhir’s “intelligent” answer was: "It's absolutely true that we...

By K.R. Nayar Sanju Samson has been dropped again. This time, the axe has fallen before the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. A study of Samson’s career reveals a blatant truth: he tops the list among Indian cricketers to be dropped from the Indian team the maximum number of times and has been ignored from the playing eleven despite being part of the squad. Samson has been dropped for the Zimbabwe series after just three scores of 5, 0, and 1, but this came after knocks of 97 not out, 89, and 89 that helped India win the T20 World Cup. This literally means that the selectors are walking around him with an axe. In fact, he got the chance to play those match-winning knocks in the T20 World Cup after the selectors tried their best to keep him out of the playing eleven, but were forced to include him towards the end. For the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup, the selectors had happily kept him out of the eleven throughout the tournament, as if his best role was to warm the bench. Those ...