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An ongoing concern for India ahead of the T20 World Cup is Rohit Sharma’s dreadfully bad recent IPL results.

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Perhaps he has moved on from the IPL. It’s possible that he is already preparing for the T20 World Cup, which begins in two weeks. Perhaps the events of the past few months, including the controversial change in leadership within his organisation, are having an impact. Regardless matter the cause, Rohit Sharma’s performance has drastically declined over the past 25 days, raising some eyebrows as the major event approaches.

The skipper of India has amassed 349 runs in 13 innings at an average of 29.08 and a strike rate of 145.41, which doesn’t seem bad. He hasn’t scored as many runs in a single event since 2021, and this season’s scoring pace is the quickest since the 2008 season, when he scored 147.98 runs per 100 balls faced. However, statistics only provide us only half the story, as they always do.

Rohit had an amazing first month of performance, but his returns have been dreadfully low after then. 297 runs in his first seven innings have been followed by a paltry 52 in his last six, in a season of radically different halves. A torturous, laborious, and unedifying 24-ball stay in the Eden Gardens on Saturday resulted in four single-digit scores, with a maximum of 19, attesting to unwavering difficulties. In addition to his lack of runs, Rohit hasn’t seemed to be “in the mood,” if you will, which has resulted in his clumsy attempt to force the bowler to make a mistake early in the innings.

Because of Rohit’s sharp decline in form and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s ongoing struggles (almost half of his 348 runs have come in two innings alone), two of India’s three possible openers—Virat Kohli being the third—go into the World Cup with little confidence or momentum. In the spirit of balance, Jaiswal will almost certainly warm the bench. Rohit and Virat Kohli, who has been outstanding throughout the campaign and is the clear front-runner for the Orange Cap, will start for India. But Rohit has to get over this slow start and get going when India kick off their World Cup campaign, both for the sake of the team and maybe more significantly for his personal sake. on June 5 in New York vs Ireland.

The captain’s impact on India’s incredible run in the 50-over home World Cup in October and November is still too recent to be thoroughly discussed. It’s enough to say that his fast pace forced opponents to defend, giving players like Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya (before his injury), and Ravindra Jadeja the freedom to play with unrestricted aggressiveness. Even in the championship match, where India lost to Australia by six wickets, Rohit opened the scoring with his usual fiery 31-ball 47; however, his dismissal in the tenth over robbed the Indians of their fluency and ultimately saw them bowled out for 240, which proved to be a remarkably insufficient total.

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India needs Rohit to be sharp and productive at the World Cup. It is anticipated that most US and Caribbean sites would have slower surfaces, which will increase the significance of frantic beginnings against the new ball. When India travels to the Americas, they will need Rohit, the 50-over World Cup enforcer, to return. Leading by example is the strongest motivation for a team, and Rohit has done just that throughout his two years in charge.

Although Rohit has remained silent and attempted to cover behind flimsy humour whenever the subject has come up, it’s clear that he doesn’t like how he was removed from his position as captain of a team that he helped win five IPL championships. None of that lingering, residual, sour aftertaste will be an unwanted companion when he is back in the blue of India for what would undoubtedly be his final T20 World Cup. Before he leaves with a few of his friends from eliminated teams for the Americas early next week, Rohit has one last game to prove himself against the Lucknow Super Giants at his beloved Wankhede on Friday. Significant runs won’t be harmful, and nobody is aware of that more clearly than Rohit does.

But come World Cup time, one can count on a focused, dedicated Rohit. Now that he’s back in control, he won’t require reminding that he has to grab the reins as the leader. Yes, this prolonged slump is a persistent concern. Rohit has the responsibility to make sure that’s all that’s left.

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Visa problems cause Arjun Erigaisi’s World Rapid and Blitz C’ship trip to the US to be delayed; Grandmaster makes an appeal.

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Arjun Erigaisi’s US travel for World Rapid and Blitz C’ship delayed due to visa issues; Grandmaster issues plea

Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi launched a plea, asking the US Embassy to look into the matter and “expedite the process.”

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi is in big limbo. He has been left high and dry ahead of the upcoming World Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York. The 21-year-old is still waiting for his visa, and he has now taken to social media to launch a plea, asking the US Embassy to look into the matter and “expedite the process.”

In his post, Erigaisi also tagged Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, asking them for help.

The World Rapid and Blitz Championship is slated to be held in New York from December 26-31. The tournament will also feature chess stars such as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Boris Gelfand.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Arjun Erigaisi wrote, “Last week, I submitted my passport to you (US Embassy) for visa stamping, and it still has not been returned. I request you to please expedite the process and return my passport as soon as possible, as I need it for my travel to New York for the World Rapid & Blitz Championship.”

For the uninitiated, Arjun Erigaisi is looking to secure a spot at the next edition of the Candidates tournament. He is currently in a two-way race with USA’s Fabiano Caruana.

The Candidates is an eight-player event to find a challenger to Gukesh Dommaraju at the next World Chess Championship.

Arjun Erigaisi stated that he had submitted his passport for visa stamping on December 13, 2024.

“My appointment was initially scheduled for December 3. I was not planning to play in Qatar because of this. Then we got to know that it’s possible to pre-pone the appointment. Biometrics was done on November 26, and the visa interview a few days after that. After it was done, I left for Qatar. And when I returned from there, I submitted my passport to the US Embassy,” Arjun told The Indian Express.

2800 mark in the Elo rating
Erigaisi recently became only the second Indian, after five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, to surpass the 2800 mark in Elo ratings.

He also won an individual and team gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

“It’s the World Rapid and Blitz Championship. It’s still a World Championship. Very prestigious. If I do well there, I will have the chance to qualify for the Candidates tournament,” Arjun said.

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“He’s not going to be like Magnus Carlsen,” D Gukesh’s head trainer says he “doesn’t like to” and draws an astonishing analogy.

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‘He will never be like Magnus Carlsen’: D Gukesh’s chief trainer makes staggering comparison, claims ‘doesn’t like to…’

Polish grandmaster Grzegorz Gajewski compared D Gukesh to Magnus Carlsen in a huge statement.

D Gukesh’s historic win against Ding Liren in Singapore sent the world into a state of frenzy as the 18-year-old became the youngest-ever world chess champion. The Indian grandmaster defeated defending champion Liren in the decisive fourteenth game of the World Chess Championship. The win saw Gukesh also become the second Indian to ever win the World Championship title, with Viswanathan Anand claiming it five times.

Former chess players, celebrities and fans took to social media to hail Gukesh. But it also received a negative response from some, including Magnus Carlsen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, Carlsen downplayed Gukesh’s achievement and also rejected a possibility of challenging him for the title. Recently, Carlsen also called the classical chess format the worst way to decide the best player.

Speaking to The Hindu after Gukesh’s win vs Liren, the Indian grandmaster’s chief trainer Grzegorz Gajewski decided to compare him to Carlsen. The Polish grandmaster feels that Gukesh has the ability to mimic Carlsen’s playing style, but also stated that he would never be like the Norwegian grandmaster.

“He will never be a player like Magnus Carlsen in the sense of being an intuitive kind of a player,” he said.

“He likes to calculate and he likes to go deep into position. He doesn’t like to make moves just purely based on intuition. He will never play in the Magnus style, but he can very well mimic it,” he added.

When asked if Gukesh is one of the best when it comes to calculation in chess, he replied, “Vishy [Anand]. In terms of talent for calculation, perhaps no one in the history of the game could match him. But at the same time, he was so fast that sometimes it became his weakness. Gukesh somewhat resembles a young Fabiano Caruana.”

Gajewski was a second to Anand in the World Chess Championship in 2014 in Sochi. He has also worked as Anand’s second in other events too. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he has taken up a role at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy in India, and has been working with players. Since 2023, he has also been Gukesh’s second, assisting him at the 2024 Candidates too, which saw him qualify for a title face-off with Liren.

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The Indian sling king, Jasprit Bumrah, is having a great time in Australia.

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Jasprit Bumrah: The India sling king who’s revelling in Australia

With his “slingshot” delivery and ability to unsettle the world’s best batsmen, India’s Jasprit Bumrah is widely regarded as one of cricket’s greatest fast bowlers.

The 31-year-old has defied career-threatening back problems and on Wednesday overtook Kapil Dev to become India’s leading Test wicket-taker in Australia.

Bumrah, India’s player of the series so far, took nine wickets in the third Test at Brisbane to move to 53 in Australia and past Dev’s previous mark of 51.

He was player of the match in India’s 295-run victory in Perth in the opening Test, before the hosts levelled the series in Adelaide.

He is the leading bowler on either side with 21 wickets in the series so far at a scarcely believable average of 10.90. The next best are Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with 14 dismissals each.

“I think he is definitely India’s greatest fast bowler,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said of Bumrah.

“In T20 cricket, one-day cricket and Test match cricket, he’s clearly the best right now.”

Travis Head, who has excelled with the bat for Australia in the five-match series scoring two centuries and a fifty, went even further.

“Jasprit is probably going to go down as one of the greatest fast bowlers to play the game,” said Head.

Bumrah, captaining in the first Test in the absence of Rohit Sharma, made life hell for the Australian batsmen on a bouncing Perth pitch.

He took 5-30 from 18 overs as the hosts were shot out for 104 and followed up with 3-42 in the second innings as India won by 295 runs.

His unorthodox front-on action allows him to release the ball late and he can bowl yorkers at will.

Australia’s quick bowler Josh Hazlewood marvelled at Bumrah’s idiosyncratic style, which was honed in his childhood while practising in a small car park near his family’s apartment in the city of Ahmedabad.

“If you haven’t faced him before, it can really unsettle you,” Hazlewood said.

“He lets the ball go way out in front, so he’s pretty much half a yard quicker than what the actual speed gun says.

“He’s like a slingshot loading up and letting go.”

Bumrah’s match haul in Perth had some pundits questioning the legality of his deliveries, which appear to be bowled with a bent elbow.

Australian great and former India coach Greg Chappell soon jumped to Bumrah’s defence, describing the debate as “nonsense” and deeming Bumrah’s action “unequivocally clean”.

Bumrah has had his share of struggles and only came back into the India team last year after a serious back injury that kept him out of action in 2022 and 2023.

He played a key part in India’s June T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados, where he was instrumental in preventing South Africa scoring 30 runs off the last 30 balls to win the final, a performance dubbed a “masterclass” by Rohit.

The seeds of his greatness were sown at his Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, where he has been a fixture for more than a decade.

Former New Zealand batsman John Wright scouted the pace bowler from his home state of Gujarat and brought him to Mumbai in 2013, when the Indians won the first of their five IPL titles.

Bumrah made an instant impact by dismissing Bengaluru’s star batsman Virat Kohli in his first match.

Head, who fell to Bumrah in the second innings at Perth, said he loved trying to solve the conundrum that is the enigmatic bowler.

“It’s going to be nice to look back at your career and tell the grandkids that you faced him,” he said.

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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

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