International
India vs South Africa: What India will be looking to gain from five-match T20I series

After the conclusion of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the attention of cricket fans shifts quickly to the upcoming five-match T20I series between India and South Africa, starting from Thursday.
As the road to Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November this year resumes, India will be eager to finalise their squad and offer a chance to newbies to showcase their skillsets. Here is what to keep an eye on as far as the hosts are concerned:
Newcomers in pace attack
With no Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami for this series, India have brought in tearaway right-arm quick Umran Malik and left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh. Amongst the plethora of uncapped Indian pacers who made a splash in IPL 2022, Malik and Singh earned their maiden T20I squad call-ups.
There is an element of excitement in what the young pace duo brings to the table. Malik, 22, has sheer pace, consistently clocking speeds above 150kph and was used as a middle-overs enforcer by Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2022, picking 19 wickets in that phase, something which the Indian team would have taken note of.
At the other end, Singh, 23, isn’t as quick as Malik. But Singh, a left-arm pacer, brings superb death-bowling skills to close out an innings, as his death-overs economy rate of 7.58 in IPL 2022 shows, which is second-best in the tournament after Bumrah’s 7.38.
Singh and Bumrah also shared the honours of bowling the most yorkers in the tournament — 38. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel in the squad, India have got a fast bowler for almost every scenario ahead of the series against South Africa.
What about Dinesh Karthik the finisher?
After earning a call-up to India’s T20I squad, veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik had described his return to the national side in the shortest format of the game as ‘most special comeback’. In IPL 2022, Karthik literally grabbed the eyeballs of fans and national selectors as a specialist finisher for Royal Challengers Bangalore, making 242 runs at a strike rate of 220 in the death overs phase.
But how does he fit into the playing eleven? Since the time India crashed out of Men’s T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, they have used Venkatesh Iyer (six times), Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant (four times each) the most in T20I finishing duties.
With Hardik Pandya back in India’s scheme of things on the back of all-round show and captaining Gujarat Titans to the IPL 2022 trophy, the national think-tank has got a happy headache over who would be their ideal finishers in the run-up to the T20 World Cup. Should Karthik get a fair run against South Africa, it would be a prime chance for him to show the team management his finishing skills and get himself ahead in the race for finishers.
Time for southpaws to step up
In last year’s T20 World Cup, India had an all-right top four in Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav, which made life simple for a Shaheen Shah Afridi to dismantle them. In their next must-win game against New Zealand, India had reshuffled their top-order, getting Ishan Kishan to open alongside Rahul, a move which backfired spectacularly as the batting never got going against a tight Blackcaps bowling attack.
Though India tried to get Kishan open the batting against West Indies and Sri Lanka, the left-hander’s returns in IPL 2022 (418 runs at an average of 32.15) were far from his fluent self as a mid-tournament slump hit him. Venkatesh Iyer was hit by the second-season syndrome, making just 182 runs at an average of just 16.55. Rishabh Pant didn’t get anything beyond a fifty in his returns of 340 runs at an average of 30.91.
In a batting order where KL Rahul, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Hooda had decent IPL 2022 seasons with the bat, India would be hoping that the swashbuckling southpaws find their groove and deliver the goods against South Africa.
International
Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

New Delhi, April 19: India on Saturday issued a sharp condemnation of the abduction and brutal killing of Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent Hindu community leader in northern Bangladesh, calling it part of a “pattern of systematic persecution” of minorities under the country’s interim government.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal voiced India’s grave concern, stating that the incident reflects an alarming trend of targetted violence against Hindus and other minority groups in Bangladesh.
“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh. This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government, even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity,” Jaiswal said in a post on social media platform X.
He added, “We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions.”
India has previously expressed similar concerns over rising attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, but this latest incident has drawn particular attention due to Roy’s prominence in the Hindu community.
Roy, who served as the Vice-President of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, was abducted from his residence in Dinajpur district on Thursday evening. According to police and family accounts, he received a phone call around 4:30 p.m., after which four unidentified men arrived on motorcycles and forcibly took him to Narabari village. He was reportedly assaulted and later found unconscious. He was rushed to a hospital in Dinajpur, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife, Shantana Roy believes the attackers used the call to confirm his location before carrying out the abduction.
Opposition leaders in India also slammed the shocking incident in the neighbouring country.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted that religious minorities, especially Hindus, are being persecuted in Bangladesh.
“Attacks on other religious minorities are also continuing. Recently, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh made a very condemnable and disappointing comment about the northeastern states of India. The persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, human rights violations, and the attempt to erase the memories of the 1971 Liberation War are efforts to weaken the relationship between India and Bangladesh. From 1971 till today, India has always wished for peace and prosperity for all the people of Bangladesh. This is in the best interest of the subcontinent,” he said.
International
Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

Sanaa, April 18: The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.
According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.
More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.
The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to “eliminate this source of fuel for” and “degrade the economic source of power of” the Houthis, Xinhua news agency reported.
In mid-March, US President Donald Trump ordered “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis after the group announced plans to resume attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, citing Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza as the reason.
Earlier on April 17, Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi had said his group had launched 26 attacks against Israel and 33 strikes on the US aircraft carrier and warships in the Red Sea since March 15.
In a televised speech aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV on Thursday, the Houthi leader said the attacks on Israel were carried out using “30 ballistic missiles and drones,” while those targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its escorts involved “122 ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones”.
However, the Israeli military has reportedly intercepted many of the Houthi projectiles before they reached targets, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US Central Command dismissed the Houthi claims of daily attacks on the US aircraft carrier as “outlandish” in a post on the social media platform X.
Meanwhile, the Houthi leader noted that the US military had conducted more than 900 airstrikes against his group’s positions across northern Yemen during the past 30 days.
Tensions between the Houthi group and the US military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 to deter the group from attacking Israel and US warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, which control much of northern Yemen, said their attacks aim to press US-backed Israel to stop the offensive against the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported last Saturday that a Yemeni drone was intercepted near the Dead Sea within the Jordanian airspace before it could reach Israel.
The Jordanian army confirmed later last week that an unidentified drone entered Jordanian airspace and crashed in the Ma’in area of Madaba governorate, near the Dead Sea, and no casualties were reported.
Even since Israel renewed its intensive strikes in March across the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have been launching frequent attacks against Israeli and US targets.
Earlier last week, the Houthi military spokesperson claimed fresh attacks against the US aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman, and other US warships in the northern Red Sea.
International
Houthis say 123 civilians in Yemen killed in one month of US airstrikes

Sanaa, April 15: A total of 123 civilians have been killed and 247 others injured, mostly women and children, since the US military resumed airstrikes across Yemen in mid-March, Houthi-run health authorities said in an statement.
The statement was issued following US airstrikes against a ceramic factory on the western outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sanaa late on Sunday night, which killed seven people and injured 29 others.
The health authorities’ previous statement on April 9 put the death toll from the renewed US air raids at 107 and the number of injuries at 223.
The Houthi group rarely discloses casualties among its fighters. However, the US military has repeatedly said the strikes have killed dozens of Houthi leaders, which the group has denied, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi group announced that it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone, the 19th it has downed since November 2023.
“A US MQ-9 drone was shot down while carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Hajjah province” in northwestern Yemen, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
Sarea added that the drone was downed by a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile, stressing “the ongoing US aggression” has not crippled the group’s military capabilities.
The statement affirmed the group’s support for the Palestinian people, saying its operations will continue “until the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and the siege on it is lifted.”
The US resumed its air campaign against Houthi forces on March 15, stating that its strikes were aimed at deterring the group from launching attacks against Israeli and US naval assets in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who control vast areas of northern Yemen, have been attacking Israeli targets since November 2023 to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
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