SPORTS

Star India boxer Nikhat Zareen rewrote the record books, clinching her second successive Women's World Boxing Championships title in the national capital on Sunday.

Nikhat outclassed Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam 5-0 in the 50kg fly weight final to retain her World title.

With the win, Nikhat became only the second Indian to win multiple gold medals after legendary MC Mary Kom at the Women's World Boxing Championships.

Mary Kom won six World Championships gold in her illustrious career (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2018)

India’s tearaway pacer Jasprit Bumrah’s career has been marred by a massive back injury. Bumrah hasn’t played any cricket in the last seven months and will miss the upcoming Indian Premier League and World Test Championship final. The BCCI is keen to get Bumrah fit before the ODI World Cup in India but if recent reports are to be believed, there is no certainty if Bumrah will be fit in time or not.

Bumrah was rushed back into the Indian team a couple of times only to be ruled out without playing a game. As per a report in Indian Express, the BCCI now don’t want to take any risk on Bumrah’s fitness. In fact, only a few top BCCI officials are aware of the extent of Bumrah’s injury. The report states that NCA head VVS Laxman has been assigned the task of bringing Bumrah back to full fitness.

Team India suffered a rare series defeat at home in ODIs after Australia prevailed in the decider in Chennai by 21 runs. While Suryakumar Yadav's horror run continued and will be a talking point for a long time, India's depth in the 50-over format has come under the scanner, especially with four first-choice players ruled out for a long period. Rishabh Pant is undergoing rehab after his car accident in December 2022, while Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out for a long time due to a back injury. Pacers Prasidh Krishna (stress fracture) and Jasprit Bumrah (back injury) too will be away from the game for some time and the bench was found out against a strong Australian team.

Shreyas Iyer's injury recurrence during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy didn't help as even though the hosts had a backup in Surya, he couldn't place bat on ball in the whole series. Surya's returns in formats apart from T20s have been abysmal and the team management and the selectors finally may give a look-in to Sanju Samson, who averages 66 in the format. Apart from Samson, another Indian youngster, who is part of the T20I side, Deepak Hooda too might return with Iyer set to stay on the sidelines for a long time.

Australia have ended India's undefeated run at home and handed the Men in Blue a 21-run defeat in the 3rd ODI to clinch the series 2-1. Asked to chase down a target of 270, India were bowled out for a mere total of 248. Adam Zampa played a key role in Austrlaia's win and took a four-fer.

The leg-spinner got the prized scalps of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja. Ashton Agar also played his part and scalped 2 wickets.

The rivalry between India and Australia on the cricket field has always been quite bitter but star batsman Virat Kohli believes that the behaviour of the players has gotten better with time thanks to the Indian Premier League (IPL). In a recent conversation with South Africa legend and his former Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate AB De Villiers, Kohli said that the competitiveness is still quite there between the two sides but the sledging is not ‘nasty' thanks to the time that the players have spent with each other as part of various IPL teams.

"The IPL has changed quite a few things. The cricket is still competitive but the verbals and the sledging is not nasty anymore. It has become a game of mutual respect and admiration. Still, you can say that they have the same hunger," Kohli said in the podcast with his ex-RCB teammate.