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Stokes would quite like Virat Kohli to be captain for rescheduled Test: Swann

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As England’s white-ball team soared to greater heights and became a force to reckon with, its fortunes in Test cricket were on a downward spiral, which hit the rock bottom when they were thrashed 0-4 in the Ashes in Australia and lost 0-1 to the West Indies.

With new appointments made to the men’s cricket managing director positions as well as coaches and captains in both formats, the new regime of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes in Tests had a lot riding on them when New Zealand came calling.

Their talk of positive and attacking cricket with a shift in attitude came true when they defeated New Zealand 3-0, leaving former England off-spinner Graeme Swann impressed.

“I have been incredibly impressed by the way England have embraced this new, positive attitude. It was a crying outfit to be honest, we had become very stagnant and stereo in the last couple of years of Test cricket. McCullum and Stokes have injected joie de vivre and the confidence is contagious, going through the veins of all the players,” said Swann in a virtual conference organised by Sony Sports.

Up next for England is the rescheduled fifth Test in Edgbaston against India, who are leading the series 2-1. “Whether they can maintain this against the Indian bowling attack, we have to wait and see. England did this (won 3-0) against New Zealand bowling attack, who are World Test champions at the minute. It’s exciting that England are playing this brand of cricket and will be up against an Indian team, who are one of the best teams in the world,” observed Swann.

Swann felt that a red-hot England have the upper hand over India ahead of the Edgbaston decider as they are coming off from facing New Zealand, while India, who last played a Test against Sri Lanka in March, played a four-day tour match against Leicestershire.

“It is a real bad time to play England because they just played these three games against New Zealand. There are chinks in the armour; the opening batting slot is still very weak. But nearly all the other spots are excellent.

“Even the spinner Jack Leach, who is under a lot of pressure, has got 10 wickets in a match at Headingley. England are in a very good position and I would say, they are slight favourites. The fact that India just had one (tour) game in Leicester, so they are coming in cold for the Test match, which is a bit of a disadvantage.”

Just like England, India will also be led by a new captain-coach combination in Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid. But with Sharma in isolation due to Covid-19 positive test, Swann believes that England won’t mind seeing senior batter Virat Kohli captain India in Test cricket again.

“You could say why not let Virat Kohli finish off the things he started and could have a final hoorah. Whether Virat would want to do that, I don’t know whether India would do that. I don’t think England will really mind. Maybe, if you think about Ben Stokes. He would quite like Virat Kohli to be captain as then he could directly compare to how Joe Root’s team played against Virat’s Indian team.”

Swann concluded by saying that who will be captaining India won’t bother England much. “England won’t be worried too much about who would be India’s captain. They would be looking for how they can put as much pressure on the Indian batsmen. The only way to beat India is to bowl them out.

“When we used to play against the Indian team, they had some of the greatest names of a generation in the team, we always used to worry about how to get them out for 200, 250, how to get them out. They will be thinking about how to get these guys out,” said Swann ahead of the rescheduled Test which will be broadcast on Sony Sports Network from July 1-5.

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Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

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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.

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Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

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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.

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Houthis say 123 civilians in Yemen killed in one month of US airstrikes

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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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