Following a commanding performance by the youngsters in the opening match, India will eye another clinical display from them to seal the three-match series when they face Ireland in the second women’s ODI in Rajkot on Sunday (January 23, 2025). Despite fielding a relatively inexperienced side, Indian women enjoyed a perfect day in the first ODI, registering a six-wicket win to take a 1-0 series lead. Captain Smriti Mandhana continued her fine form, laying the foundation with a forceful 41, while the efforts of Pratika Rawal and Tejal Hasabnis, who shared a 100-plus partnership to steer the chase, were crucial. Their performances are a big boost for the team, especially with regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur missing from the lineup after she was rested for this series. Pace spearhead Renuka Singh, the highest wicket-taker in the previous series against the West Indies, was also rested for this series. In her absence, young Titas Sadhu stepped up, striking in her first spell. Sayali Satghare also impressed, taking a wicket, while Saima Thakor bowled a tidy 10-over spell. Spinner Priya Mishra had a notable outing with two quick wickets, and vice-captain Deepti Sharma also played her part. Mandhana, who had previously captained India against New Zealand, managed the inexperienced squad in excellent manner, and the management might be pleased with the bench strength ahead of the home ODI World Cup later this year. However, India’s fielding was subpar in the first ODI. They dropped Leah Paul twice, allowing Ireland to recover from a precarious 56 for 4 to go past the 200-run mark. The Indian bowlers will also look to execute their plans in a better way to keep Ireland under 200 and close out the match with much more ease. For Ireland, captain Gaby Lewis played the lead act with a superb 92, but lacked support from the middle order. Paul, benefitting from her chances, also struck a half-century. Ireland will need more intent from other batters to challenge India. The biggest disappointment for Ireland was their bowling attack. Apart from Aimee Maguire, who took three wickets, the rest of the bowlers were expensive and ineffective as India chased down the target with more than 15 overs to spare. Sitting at the bottom of the Women’s Championship table and failing to qualify directly for the World Cup, Ireland will need a complete lift in their performance level to secure their first-ever women’s ODI win against India. Squad (from): India: Smriti Mandhana (C), Deepti Sharma (VC), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Raghvi Bist, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Tanuja Kanwer, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Sayali Satghare. Ireland: Gaby Lewis (C), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Alana Dalzell, Laura Delany, Georgina Dempsey, Sarah Forbes, Arlene Kelly, Joanna Loughran, Aimee Maguire, Leah Paul, Orla Prendergast, Una Raymond-Hoey, Freya Sargent, Rebecca Stokell.

Riding high on a dominant performance against the West Indies, India under Smriti Mandhana will look to carry forward their winning momentum when they take on Ireland in the first-ever women’s bilateral series, with the opening ODI scheduled in Rajkot on Friday (January 10, 2025). India had swept the West Indies 3-0 in the ODI series, following a 2-1 triumph in the T20 series. Mandhana emerged as the top run-scorer across both formats, scoring 148 runs in the ODI series, including two half-centuries, and amassing 193 runs in the T20s, with three successive fifties. Notably, she scored five consecutive half-centuries, only missing out in the final ODI and Mandhana will look to bring the same form as she leads the team in the absence of regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who has been rested alongside fast bowler Renuka Singh. With Kaur and Renuka missing, the responsibility shifts to the rest of the batters, including Harleen Deol, Pratika Rawal, and Jemimah Rodrigues, to step up. Deol was the top scorer in the ODI series with 160 runs, including a brilliant 115, while Rawal and Rodrigues also had solid outings, scoring 134 and 112 runs, respectively, with a fifty each in the ODIs. In the bowling department, Renuka’s absence will be felt as she was the leading wicket-taker with 10 wickets in the ODI series against the West Indies. The onus will now fall on newcomers Titas Sadhu and Saima Thakor to make their mark. Sadhu, 20, who has three wickets in ODIs and 13 wickets in T20Is, will be expected to provide early breakthroughs, having impressed with her pace and swing in domestic and recent international cricket. Saima, 28, will also look to continue her good form after taking seven wickets in eight ODIs so far. Vice-captain and off-spinner Deepti Sharma will be crucial, especially after her career-best bowling performance of 6 for 31 in the third ODI against the West Indies. Priya Mishra and Tanuja Kanwar will play key roles in supporting Deepti. Eyes will also be on all-rounders Raghvi Bist and Sayali Satghare, who have been included in the squad for this series. Bist has the ability to score quickly and is also a reliable fielder. She will look to seize the opportunity after making her debut in the WI T20 series. Ireland, led by Gaby Lewis with all-rounder Orla Prendergast as her deputy, will face a tough challenge against India. The Irish team has never beaten India in the 12 ODIs they have played against them, with India winning their last encounter in the 2023 T20 World Cup by a narrow five-run margin. However, the Irish team boasts some quality all-rounders, with Prendergast likely to be a key player. Having gained experience in Australia and the WBBL, she will look to bring that to the fore as Ireland takes on the formidable India at home. Squad: India: Smriti Mandhana (C), Deepti Sharma (VC), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Raghvi Bist, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Tanuja Kanwer, Titas Sadhu, Saima Thakor, Sayali Satghare. Ireland: Gaby Lewis (C), Ava Canning, Christina Coulter Reilly, Alana Dalzell, Laura Delany, Georgina Dempsey, Sarah Forbes, Arlene Kelly, Joanna Loughran, Aimee Maguire, Leah Paul, Orla Prendergast, Una Raymond-Hoey, Freya Sargent, Rebecca Stokell.

Double Olympic-medalist Manu Bhaker, chess world champion Gukesh, gold-medalist Paralympian Praveen Kumar, and captain of the bronze-medal-winning Indian hockey team Harmanpreet Singh are the four athletes who will be presented with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, as a part of the National Sports Awards 2024 announced by the Sports Ministry. The Arjuna awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024 will be presented to a total of 32 athletes, 17 of them being para-athletes, in honor of their success at the 2024 Paris Paralympics where they brought home 29 medals including seven gold and nine silver. The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17. 22-year old Manu Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two meals in a single edition of the Olympics. Paralympian Praveen Kumar, who won the gold medal at the men’s T64 high-jump event at the Paris Paralympics, which is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and rely on a prosthetic leg for running.

Australia defeated India by six wickets on Sunday (January 5, 2025). With this win the Australian team has regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a gap of 10 years. With this 1-3, India are out of the World Test Championship final. India was the only team to have played the last two WTC finals. India had lost both the finals against New Zealand and Australia respectively. India started the latest series on a strong note with an emphatic victory at Perth, but Australia bounced back strongly to level the series at Adelaide. Australia took a 2-1 lead in the fourth Test at Melbourne and defeated India in the final Test. This win has also enabled Australia to enter their second successive World Test Championship final to be played at Lords in June. They will be up against South Africa.

Late on Sunday night, Mitchell Starc and some of his teammates got into a sports utility vehicle and left the Sydney Cricket Ground. The celebrations in the Australian dressing room stretched long and spilled onto the turf. Some ambled near the ropes and a few went close to the pitch. Reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a decade, the host has to thank the players who made this possible, and above all respect is owed to Pat Cummins. He bagged the wickets (25), scored vital runs (159), led well and Australia won by a 3-1 margin. The Indians, meanwhile, had left the venue in the evening. They have enough to chew upon, grapple with and crease their foreheads. Commencing their tour with a 295-run victory in the first Test at Perth, the force was with them. The warm-up game against the Prime Minister’s XI at Canberra was pocketed too, before the campaign unravelled. The Adelaide pink-ball Test was lost, and rain and the lower order secured a draw in Brisbane. And when R. Ashwin retired, the squad was in churn. The script turned morbid through a terrible last session and the Melbourne game was squandered. Finally at Sydney, even after snatching a four-run first innings lead, an inept second innings, despite Rishabh Pant’s fireworks, meant that Australia had an attainable target. An injured Jasprit Bumrah’s absence was a ghastly blow to India’s chances. If one man had a large bearing on how India shaped up through this series, it was Bumrah, who also led in the first and fifth Test. His 32 wickets, till a back-spasm laid him low, meant that the Australian batters never felt they were fully settled at the crease. Every media interaction would involve a ‘Bumrah-question’ and the answers would range from shock to awe. Among his support cast, Mohammed Siraj ran in all day. His effect may have varied but he has 20 wickets to show. The reality is if India capitulated eventually, a large share of the blame has to be apportioned to the batters. Skipper Rohit Sharma failed miserably, while Virat Kohli, after a ton at Perth, developed a fatal attraction around the off-stump. The former even skipped the last Test. Meanwhile, with their bats, Yashasvi Jaiswal (391 runs), K.L. Rahul, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pant, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja, had their moments. However, these were sporadic. A youngster like Shubman Gill going through a drought is also a cause for worry. Coach Gautam Gambhir spoke about converting the 20s and 30s into big hundreds. However, this line-up seemingly lacks players, who can bat inexorably long. It was an attribute that Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Cheteshwar Pujara had. In all this talk about momentum, the fine-print about a draw being a honourable result was forgotten. If Melbourne was drawn, India would have reached Sydney at 1-1, and anything could have transpired. Chairman Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selectors have to figure out the nucleus of the Test squad, starting with the England tour from June, later this year. After 2013, when India moved on from the Tendulkar era following his retirement, the present is another tipping point. There is no masking this grim truth, even if the glories secured in limited overs cricket, can be blinding at times.

Australia lose one wicket as skipper Jasprit Bumrah made an early breakthrough in the final ball of the match on day one of the fifth and final Test match on Friday (January 3, 2025). Australia finish the day’s play with nine runs on the board. Earlier, India was dismissed for 185 runs in their first innings. After opting to bat, they crumbled under a relentless pace onslaught with Rishabh Pant top-scoring on 40. Scott Boland was the pick of the bowlers with 4-31 while Mitchell Starc took 3-49. Opting to bat, India had lost KL Rahul (4), Yashasvi Jaiswal (10) and Shubman Gill (20) in the opening session. India captain Rohit Sharma rested himself from the series finale with Jasprit Bumrah walking out for the toss in his place. India trail the series 1-2. Brief scores: India 107/4 in 50 overs (Rishabh Pant 32 batting, Shubman Gill 20; Scott Boland 2/15).