Priyanka Singh

Ravindra Jadeja and Rivaba’s special moment after CSK IPL 2023 Win: How Netizens reacted to cutest pictures

In that team led by MS Dhoni, there was a fantastic blend of youth and experienced who performed in fantastic fashion to emerge victorious in tough English conditions. There were newcomers who shone, experienced players who took onus and performed, and a captain cool who guided his team towards glory.

India didn’t have some major names like Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh – who all were part of India’s ODI World Cup triumph two years before that. But the CT 2013 win ensured the Indian cricket was in safe hands as Dhoni was ready to lead the next generation of Indian cricket.

India won all of their five matches in their journey to win the Champions Trophy in 2013. They beat South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan in the group stage fixtures, and then beat Sri Lanka and England in the semifinal and final respectively.

Today we shall talk about four key performers from that Champions League 2013 squad who played a major part in India’s joyous and victorious campaign-

Shikhar Dhawan

The name that comes on top of the mind is Shikhar Dhawan. The southpaw wreaked havoc in that tournament and thus embarked his fantastic ICC trophy records.

Dhawan scored 363 runs in five matches with a humongous batting average of 90.75, consisting of two centuries in those. He scored hundreds against South Africa and West Indies in the group stage, and then also played a beautiful 68-run knock in the semifinal against Sri Lanka.

The batter scored 31 off 24 runs in the final against England an ended up as the highest scorer in the tournament. He was also the solitary player to score multiple centuries in that edition of CT.

Ravindra Jadeja

A 23-year-old Ravindra Jadeja made his ODI debut in 2009, but cemented his place in the national team in 2013 with a stellar performance.

Jadeja picked up 12 wickets in five matches and finished as the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. He also scored 33 crucial runs in the final and picked up 2 wickets with the ball, which earned him the Player of the Match award.

The left-arm spinner was the only player in the tournament to have a five-fer, when he picked 5/36 against West Indies.

Ishant Sharma

Ishant Sharma is remembered for a spell of four balls in the entire tournament. With England needing 20 off 16 balls in the Final, the pacer got the wickets of set batters Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara in consecutive deliveries and changed the complexion of the whole match.

But even without it, the lanky bowler did well for the team. Sharma spearheaded the Indian pace attack extremely well and picked up 10 wickets in the tournament.

Can’t Believe India 🇮🇳 Won the match ( CT 2013 final ) from here !

20 runs from 16 balls with 6 wickets remaining 🫡 !

Ishant Sharma, Ashwin 💙💙 !

MS Dhoni :- the 🐐 captain ! pic.twitter.com/uLKPakbc6G

— 🇦🇺 ✨. (@ritik______raj) May 22, 2023

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli managed 176 runs in the tournament. Although his numbers were not as prolific as Kohli’s standards, he made a crucial impact though.

Kohli scored an unbeaten 22 to get India home against Pakistan, and then backed it up with another crucial unbeaten 58 as Indian saw Sri Lanka off in the semifinal.

His major impact came in the Final when the batter scored 43 runs in a rain-curtailed match. With wickets tumbling around him, Kohli stitched a crucial 47-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja and helped India to amass a respectable total, which proved to be enough.

ICC Test Rankings In the latest weekly update from the International Cricket Council, Marnus Labuschagne retains the top spot with team-mates Steve Smith and Travis Head moving up to second and third respectively.

Scoring 163 across the first two days of the WTC Final at The Oval, Head jumped three places from the sixth spot to secure the third rank. He has joined Labuschagne (1st) and Steve Smith (2nd) in the top three with a rating of 884. With 777 rating points, Usman Khawaja (9th) makes it four Australians in the top 10.

It was the first instance since 1984 when three batters from the same side occupied the top three positions in the Test rankings. West Indies batting troika of Gordon Greenidge (810), Clive Lloyd (787), and Larry Gomes (773) formed the top trio in December 1984.

Joe Root is the highest England batter in sixth. Alex Carey’s exploits (48 and 66*) were also rewarded with a jump of 11 spots, moving to 36th with 592 ranking points. India skipper Rohit Sharma (729) and his predecessor Virat Kohli (700) sit in 12th and 13th respectively after the match.

Ashwin continues to be No.1 Test Bowler

Despite missing the WTC Final, where Team India decided to play with four pacers and just one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin remained No.1 with 860 rating points.

The most noteworthy move in bowlers’ rankings came from Australia’s Nathan Lyon. The off-spinner moved up two places in a tie for sixth with England quick Ollie Robinson (777).

Lyon was given little opportunity to bowl in the first innings final after his quick-bowling teammates seized control, though claimed one wicket to help his side to a healthy first-innings lead.

The spinner came into his own in India’s second innings, taking 4/41, including the last scalp of Umesh Yadav, for Australia to lift the mace.

Lower down the rankings Scott Boland’s stocks continue to rise, moving up six places to 36th (534), four places ahead of Mohammed Siraj, who claimed 4/108 and 1/80 in the defeat. His captain Pat Cummins remains third, with England’s James Anderson second.

“He (Neeraj) started his training last week and should be in good health by the end of this month,” said the Athletics Federation of India coach.

Neeraj Chopra, along with steeplechaser Avinash Sable, has been granted exemption from the Inter-State Athletics Championships.

The rest of the athletes have been asked to compete in the event in order to qualify for the Asian Games.

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Neeraj Chopra

Sprinter Hima Das, who hasn’t competed in any event this season, has skipped the five-day event as well. Coach Radhakrishnan said that Hima is reeling from a long-term hamstring injury and will miss the Asian Games in September-October as well.

Hima had won a 400m individual silver at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. She was also a part of the gold and silver winning women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay quartet in Jakarta.

However, the runner has switched to 100m and 200m dash due to a mysterious injury.

“It is unfortunate she (Hima) was injured a day before the Indian Grand Prix IV in Bengaluru (on April 15). She pulled a hamstring and also had a back problem. Now, the medical investigation is going on and planning for treatment.

I believe that she will not be able to participate in the Asian Games as per the policy of the AFI,” Nair said.

Nair also said that officials from the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) will also carry out ‘In Competition’ (IC) testing at the Kalinga Stadium.

“I am 100 percent sure that NADA officials are coming. They could be from Kolkata or some from Delhi also. During the Federation Cup in Ranchi (last month), there was a team of 7-8 officials.

“Now, NADA is very strict, they are appointing so many officials, so they would be coming here also,” Nair said during a rare pre-championship press conference.

Nair said the AFI plans to send a big contingent of at least 60 athletes to compete at the July 12 to 16 Asian Athletics Championship scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand.

The team will be declared after a selection review meeting on June 20.

“We have done a preliminary selection and there were athletes who could not participate in the Federation Cup (last month) as they were training abroad.

They have to confirm their performance in the Inter-State. We will have a selection review meeting on June 20 and then we will declare the team,” he said.

“For example, Tejaswin Shankar has done one decathlon event and he must qualify for Asian Championships with the qualifying mark of 7500 aggregate points in the Inter-State.”

Chopra and Sable will also not participate in the Asian Championship as their main focus is on the World Championship in Hungary (August 19-27).

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The senior batters of the team are under fire for failing to deliver time and again in knockout matches. India were bundled out for 296 in reply to Australia’s 469 in the first innings. In the second innings, the side got all out for 234.

Virat Kohli and Pujara both got stars in the second innings but failed to convert them into big scores. However, Ganguly is of the view that it’s not yet the time to look beyond the two batting mainstays.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions due to just one loss, India will always have talent. And I don’t think it is time to look beyond Virat (Kohli) or (Cheteshwar) Pujara. Virat is just 34,” said Ganguly on India Today.

‘Hope Hardik Pandya is listening, want to see him play Test cricket’

Further, Ganguly said he doesn’t consider IPL performances an apt criteria for selection in Test squad. The former India reckoned that there are many players in the domestic cricket who are raring to showcase their talent in front of the world, adding that India will never have dearth of quality players.

He took a few names including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad who will keep Indian cricket in good stead. Ganguly had a special mention for Hardik Pandya who has sidelined himself from Test cricket since incurring a career-threatening back injury in 2018.

Ganguly has urged Hardik Pandya to play Test cricket for India especially in overseas conditions.

“India has enormous reserves. When you look at some of the performances. I don’t consider IPL performances if we are sticking to Test cricket. In domestic cricket there are some fantastic players and you will only find out when you give them opportunities.

“Whether it be Jaiswal or Patidar, Abhimanyu Easwaran from Bengal scores a lot of runs. Shubman Gill is young, Ruturaj Gaikwad and I hope Hardik Pandya is listening. I want to see him play Test cricket, especially in these conditions,” said Ganguly.