Haryana seamer Anshul Kamboj added to India Test squad as injury cover
The 24-year-old Kamboj, who has 79 wickets in 24 first class games, was part of the India A side, which played two three-day games last month. He took five wickets in the two games.
"India A seamer, #AnushulKamboj has been added to the Indian squad as a cover ahead of the 4th Test vs England at Manchester!" the official broadcasters of the tour, Star Sports, posted on X.
With the team management still undecided on whether to play Jasprit Bumrah in the fourth match to be played at Old Trafford and some of the other bowlers failing to make an impact in the previous games, Arshdeep was in contention for a place in the match.
Arshdeep suffered a cut on his bowling hand while trying to stop a ball during a practice session on Thursday and he was seen with a bandage on.
"He tried to stop the ball off Sai and it's just a cut on his hand, so we have to see how bad the cut is. Obviously the medical team have taken him off to see a doctor and obviously if he needs stitches or doesn't need stitches, that's going to be important to our planning for the next few days,' India's assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had said on left-arm pacer's injury.
However, there is also an uncertainty over Akash Deep's availability for the fourth Test as he is reportedly struggling with a groin niggle.
On day 4 of the third Test at Lord's, in the 28th over of the England innings, Akash Deep left for the dressing room after feeling discomfort. After being treated in the dressing room, the pacer returned to the field but didn't bowl thereafter.
Currently, England are leading the five-Test series 2-1 after winning the last match by 22 runs at Lord's.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
a minute ago
- Indian Express
Who is Lee Fortis, the Oval pitch curator Gautam Gambhir was yelling at
Just days after watching his team fight their way — in more ways than one — to a draw in the Old Trafford Test in Manchester, Gautam Gambhir got into a fight of his own at the Oval stadium on Tuesday as the Indian team attended their first training session before their final Test against England. In visuals captured by the travelling flock of Indian media, Gambhir can be seen yelling at a burly man, who was later identified as Oval pitch curator Lee Fortis. Gambhir can be heard yelling 'you don't tell us what we need to do'. Later, India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had revealed that the Oval staff had tried to tell Indian team management when they had gone to check out the wicket to stand two and a half metres away. This had sparked the confrontation between India head coach Gambhir and Fortis, where he can be seen telling the India coach that he will raise a complaint with the match referee. VIDEO | Indian team's head coach Gautam Gambhir was seen having verbal spat with chief curator Lee Fortis at The Oval Cricket Ground in London ahead of the last Test match of the series starting Thursday. After having drawn the fourth Test at Old Trafford, India have a chance… — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 29, 2025 So who is Lee Fortis, the Oval pitch curator Gautam Gambhir was yelling at? Fortis has been in charge of the pitch at the Oval ion London since 2012, when he was brought on to replace Bill Gordon. Before 2012, Fortis had previously worked as an assistant head groundsman at the Oval before leaving in 2006. He had a stint tending the Honourable Artillery Company ground in the City of London. After taking charge of the Oval ground as Surrey's Head of Ground Staff, Fortis claimed the award for the best multi-day pitches for the third consecutive year at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) 2024 Grounds Manager of the Year Awards last year. A statement from the Grounds Management Association (GMA) – the UK's leading membership body dedicated to supporting grounds staff – noted: 'Fortis and his team at the Oval earned consistently outstanding marks for their County Championship and Test pitches during the 2024 domestic and international season to win the Bernard Flack Memorial Trophy. This is also the fourth time in total that Fortis has scooped the prize since starting his role since 2012.'
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
4 minutes ago
- First Post
Divya Deshmukh flips the script and rewrites history at Chess World Cup, signalling brighter future for Indian women's chess
Divya Deshmukh's victory at the 2025 Women's Chess World Cup was historic, but more importantly, it highlighted her flourishing game and signalled the possibility of Indian women dominating the sport. read more In an unprecedentedly successful campaign for India, Divya Deshmukh emerged as its biggest star. Image: PTI Divya Deshmukh credited fate in disbelief as she became the first Indian to win a Women's Chess World Cup and stormed to the Grandmaster title without fulfilling the required norms. 'I think it was fate, me getting the grandmaster title this way. Before the tournament, I didn't even have one norm. I was thinking that I could maybe earn a grandmaster norm here," an emotional Divya said as FIDE's interviewer tried to capture some candid moments immediately after the teenager's historic victory. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A few seconds later, something changed, not the tone, but the self-belief and resolve that pushed the former International Master from a relatively smaller city, Nagpur, to the topmost of the podium in Batumi, Georgia, came to the fore. 'This means a lot, but there's a lot more to achieve. I'm hoping this is just the start,' the 19-year-old declared. Divya's ascent to the top in the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, which included 107 players, some of the best chess minds, except world champion Ju Wenjun and a tough knock-out format battle, was based on the same self-belief and resolve. Divya flips the script and rewrites history We already know she entered the tournament without a single GM norm, but also had a low seeding of 15th in the tournament that included multiple former world champions. The one , another Indian and the torchbearer of women's chess in the country, Koneru Humpy, is the reigning Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. Then there was former 2008 Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012 Women's World Champion Anna Ushenina and 2017 Women's World Champion Tan Zhongyi. The grinding field also included the 2018 World Championship runner-up Kateryna Lagno and the 2023 Women's World Championship runner-up Lei Tingjie, who was also the top seed. It didn't end there. The seven-round knockout format, where each player contested two Classical games followed by tiebreaks if needed, exerted colossal mental pressure on the competitors. There were no freebies and every loss could mean elimination. If the idiom 'trial by fire' could take the shape of a playing field, it would be the line-up that stood in front of Divya. But what did she do? Divya scripted an incredible streak of four consecutive wins from the fourth round against higher-ranked players, beating second seed Zhu Jiner of China in Round 4, stunning 10th seed and compatriot D Harika in the quarter-finals, outwitting former world champion Tan Zhongyi of China in the semi-finals, before the big scalp in the final. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Divya Deshmukh's historic win at the 2025 Women's Chess World Cup will inspire a new generation of women chess players in India. Image: PTI To pull off such a feat once could be luck, but to do it four times on a trot within a span of a few days only highlights how special the 2024 Women's Under-20 World Champion is as a player. Zhu Jiner's defeat: The crown jewel of Divya's historic campaign That speciality of her chess was on full display when Divya outsmarted 22-year-old Jiner in the fourth round, who enjoyed a 5-0 record over the Indian till then. Divya won the first Classical game, but Jiner came back in the second, forcing tiebreaks. The story for the Indian prodigy could have been over in the first tiebreak when she committed a 34th-move knight blunder and a 61st-move Rook blunder with the Black pieces, but somehow managed to take the game to 99 moves and forced the Chinese chess star to resign. The second tiebreak ended in a draw and Divya made the impossible possible. Her stunning victory was only made sweeter by the fact that three other players from the same country — Humpy, Harika and R Vaishali also qualified for the final eight stage, a first in the world of chess and new history for India. In the quarter-finals, Divya got the better of Harika and quickly reminded us how much the victory over Jiner had positively impacted her game. 'Zhu Jiner was definitely my toughest opponent up to now and winning the tiebreak against her gave me confidence for this one," she said after reaching the semi-finals. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Soon, only two Indians were left in the tournament — Divya and Humpy — at the semi-final stage, where both scripted exceptional wins. Humpy outclassed top seed Tingjie 5-3 despite trailing 0-1 at one point, while Divya stunned former champion Zhongyi. The rest, as they say, is history. Also Read | How Divya outfoxed Humpy, scripted history by winning FIDE Women's Chess World Cup But besides Divya's individual glory, the tournament also underlined the rapid strides Indian women's chess is making. Last year, they captured the Olympiad gold for the first time. This year, Divya, 19 years younger than 38-year-old Humpy, won India's first Women's World Cup title, signalling that the future would be even brighter than the glittering present.
India Today
4 minutes ago
- India Today
Divya Deshmukh's Chess World Cup triumph fuelled by mental toughness: Susan Polgar
Legendary Grandmaster Susan Polgar has hailed Divya Deshmukh's remarkable Women's World Cup triumph as a victory fuelled by "mental toughness" and an unshakable will to win, after the 19-year-old etched yet another historic chapter in Indian a thrilling all-Indian final held in Batumi, Georgia, Divya stunned the vastly more experienced Koneru Humpy in the tiebreaks on Monday. Entering the tournament as a dark horse, the teenager from Maharashtra not only secured the prestigious World Cup but also qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament and became India's 88th of all, congratulations to Divya for this historic feat. Well done," Polgar told PTI Videos in an interview. "Even though she may not have been the pre-tournament favourite, or the strongest on paper, she had what others lacked - the will to win and mental toughness." The 56-year-old Hungarian-American, who was the women's world champion from 1996 to 1999, praised Divya's resilience throughout the competition. "There were games where she was in trouble, and some where she couldn't convert. But none of it mattered. She kept fighting, without fear. Her strong nerves carried her through the finish line."Divya's feat places her among the elite in Indian chess, becoming only the fourth Indian woman Grandmaster after Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, and R. Vaishali, and the 44th female GM in the who herself became the top-rated female player in the world at just 15, believes Indian chess is in the midst of a golden era, propelled by a wave of fearless young talent and bolstered by the guidance of icons like Viswanathan Anand."This is the Golden Age of Chess in India," she said. "What is even more special is that these talents are all homegrown. They respect and support each other. With sustained support from the government - national to local - and sponsors, India will remain at the top for years to come."Citing the example of teen sensation D. Gukesh, who became a Grandmaster at the age of 12, Polgar noted that success in chess often comes down to intangible qualities."When Gukesh became a GM, he wasn't the highest rated among Indian prospects," she recalled. "But I immediately picked him to go furthest. Some thought I was crazy. But as someone who's worked with over 50 Grandmasters, including players rated above 2700, I recognised his special traits.""Same with Divya. She may not be India's highest rated female player, but she has those same intangibles - fearlessness and an immense will to win. That often compensates for any technical deficiencies, which they can address with more training and experience."advertisementPolgar urged both Gukesh and Divya to stay grounded and keep working diligently, warning that future challenges will be fiercer now that they've reached the summit."Don't stop. It's like a moving train - ride the momentum and don't slow down. There'll always be players who are hungrier. If you ease up, it gets much harder," she cautioned. "Divya is no longer an up-and-comer. She's a World Cup champion now. The target is on her back. Others will be gunning for her. She must train - and train harder."Polgar also had warm words for Koneru Humpy, who has been at the forefront of Indian women's chess for decades."Humpy is a phenomenal player. I have great respect for her. She's been near the top for many years. Age and motherhood make things more challenging, but she navigated many tough matches in this tournament. Monday was Divya's day - that's sport. But Humpy will have her moments again, and I wish her all the best."- Ends
