Latest news with #TeamIndia
Pink Villa
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Yuzvendra Chahal and RJ Mahvash's dating timeline: From initial rumors to sharing pictures and cherishing moments together
Cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal and social media influencer and actress RJ Mahvash's relationship has been grabbing headlines for quite some time. From their first spotting together to sharing pics and enjoying each other's company, the duo has been giving major couple goals. Though they haven't made their relationship official, fans don't need any proof now. Let's take a closer look at their rumored relationship timeline. 1. Yuzvendra Chahal-RJ Mahvash: How the dating rumors first sparked The rumors of Yuzvendra Chahal and RJ Mahvash started doing rounds on social media after Yuzvendra was seen enjoying India vs New Zealand Champions Trophy 2025 Finals match with popular social media influencer RJ Mahvash. In the photos and video that went viral, they seemed quite comfortable with each other and were seen engaged in chatting. Netizens were quick to speculate if they were dating. 2. RJ Mahvash calls herself Team India's lucky charm After India won the Champions Trophy 2025, Mahvash took to her Instagram handle and dropped a series of pictures of videos and pictures from the stadium including a few with Yuzvendra Chahal, and wrote, "Kaha tha na jita ke aungi, I am good luck for team India." 3. RJ Mahvash's heartwarming social media posts for Yuzvendra Chahal On April 9, RJ Mahvash took to Instagram and dropped a carousel of photos with Chahal's team Punjab Kings' flag. She also dropped a photo with the cricketer adding to the dating buzz. She showed her support by praising those who stand by their people no matter what, referring to Yuzvendra Chahal and adding symbolic emojis. The popular social media influencer also backed the sentiment on her Instagram Stories, expressing support for his team and highlighting the value of respectful friendships. She also took to Instagram stories and shared that if one keeps their intentions pure, what's important to them will come back to them. She suggested living by 'ethics' and ignoring others' opinions. Taking to Instagram, RJ Mahvash dropped a video where she can be heard saying, 'Kya hai na hum Hindustani ladkiyon ko hamari chai aur ladko ka rang thoda gehra hi pasand hota hai.' She also praised the cricketer for doing the impossible at IPL 2025 and wrote, 'What a talented man. Highest wicket-taker for a reason. Asambhav!' She also once expressed admiration for the cricketer writing, 'God mode on kyaaaa? @yuzi_chahal23 strength of a warrior, sir,' after he delivered a hat-trick in the IPL 2025. On May 30, RJ Mahvash took to Instagram and shared several photos and videos where she was seen proudly hosting the flag of Yuzvendra Chahal's team at stadium during IPL and wrote, 'Prediction: Final match RCB vs PBKS hoga!' 4. RJ Mahvash on love, single life and a fun confession about Yuzvendra In an interview with Radio Nasha, RJ Mahvash said, "I am dumb in love, but I also avoid red flags. My standards go below my heels when I meet the person; before that, they're very high." Meanwhile, in a conversation with Yuvaa, the popular social media influencer shared, 'I am very much single.' She added that she will only date a person with whom she plans to get married as she doesn't believe in casual relationships. However, she added that she has put the idea of marriage on hold for now. In a conversation with The Free Press Journal, the Pyar Paisa Profit actress opened up about the emotional impact of rumors linking her to cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal. She shared that the speculation deeply affected her, leaving her overwhelmed and questioning why people were targeting her without knowing the truth. In a chat with Instant Bollywood, RJ Mahvash opened up on what he wants to steal from Yuzvendra and shared, 'His niceness and how humble he is. He is the most caring person you'll ever find and so available for his people. So, I would steal his nature.' 5. Yuzvendra Chahal's sweet shout-out for RJ Mahvash Meanwhile, RJ Mahvash recently made her acting debut with Pyar Paisa Profit. Yuzvendra took to Instagram on May 7 and gave a sweet shout-out to her writing, 'congratulations @ proud of you,' and added a hug, clap, and evil eye emoticons. Later, he also cheered for her and added, 'Fan boy after finishing Pyaar Paisa Profit,' and added a blue heart emoticon, tagging RJ Mahvash. Re-sharing his IG story, she wrote, 'Thank you! Tm trophy leke aao hum next season leke aayenge,' with laughing and OK hand emojis. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more such news.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘Family is more important than my career': Jasprit Bumrah opens up about fitness, his body and workload management
India ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah opened up about his much-discussed workload management, family and much more in a recent conversation with former Australian cricketer Michael Clarke. Speaking on Clarke's podcast named Beyond 23, Bumrah said his family is more important than his career. 'For me, family is more important than my career because you know that is constant. There are two things that I take seriously. One is my family, and one is my game, but family comes first,' said Bumrah. 'I have to give priority, and I do give priority because I will not be a cricketer all the time. For them, I'm not a cricketer. I'm a human being, and you know, being a young father, seeing my son, you know, he started picking up the ball and started playing with the ball, which is not advisable at this moment,' he added. With Shubman Gill taking over the captaincy reins from Rohit Sharma after his retirement, Team India is looking at a new era starting from the England tour. Bumrah was in reckoning for the Test leadership, but since he is unlikely to feature in all five Tests, looking at his workload management, the selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar, decided to go with Gill instead. Speaking on his fitness and his body, Bumrah said: 'Obviously, it is tough for any individual to keep playing everything for so long. I've been doing it for a while, but eventually you have to understand where your body is going, what is the important tournament. 'You have to be a little selective and smart about how you use your body. As a cricketer, I would never want to leave anything and always keep on going. But I don't set goals or look at numbers. whenever I have (set goals), I've never been able to fulfil them,' he added. 'I just try and enjoy because that's why I started this sport. Take one day at a time and collect memories because, at the end of the sport, that's all I'll remember,' added Bumrah.
Mint
a day ago
- Sport
- Mint
Big data has changed cricket
The 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been anything but typical—how could it be, with the armed conflict between India and Pakistan forcing a week-long hiatus in May. Yet, the tournament remains a barometer for cricket's overarching trends. Even a casual glance at an IPL broadcast tells us the direction in which the game is heading—scientific, data-backed and underpinned by professional analytics. The pre-match show is punctuated by bursts of data specific to the venue—average scores, average degree of spin/seam movement, the average and economy rates for every single style of bowling. Two opposing players are pitted against one another in 'matchups", and we have ball-by-ball data about which batter fared poorly against which bowler. Former players plot the dismissals of key batters, keeping the bowlers of the day in mind, while broadcasters quickly back up their arguments using ball-tracking data. 'If you're a professional cricketer today," says former India wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta, 47, 'and you're playing for your country or you're playing in the IPL, you know that the other teams will have seen hours and hours of footage of you at play. There will be people whose job it is to go over the data, analyse your every weakness and figure out how to capitalise on it." Every team in the IPL knows that their key players are being deconstructed; massive datasets are being pored over by professional analysts; players are aware they will be 'figured out" sooner rather than later; they have to keep finding new and creative answers to questions being posed on-field—all of which has changed the game at the day-to-day level. 'One of the main things is the ball-tracking system," says Dasgupta, who has been a part of the commentary and pre/post-match analysis teams for IPL broadcasts. 'Everything flows downwards from there. If you're a batting coach, you can use the ball-tracking data to tell your batters which lengths and lines are troubling them. If you're a bowling coach, you can use the same data to make specific plans for the opposition's best batters." In Sanjay Manjrekar's playing days—the late 1980s and the 1990s—international teams didn't invest heavily in analysts. In recent years, however, teams have reaped the benefits of astute data analysis. According to the former India batter, young cricketers have been quick to adapt. 'Previously, if the captain or the coach wanted one of their players to make an adjustment in their game, they'd have to rely on what they've observed with their own eyes. But now, with the data and the analytics and everything, it has become very easy to convince players—and also fans, actually. The subjectivity has reduced." Cricket's new backroom Ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup, held in the US and the West Indies, Team India analyst Himanish Ganjoo figured out that the explosive English opening batter Phil Salt was susceptible to deliveries angling in to him, deviating further inwards after pitching, targeting the stumps. The findings were presented to team India coach Rahul Dravid. Sure enough, in the eventual India vs England semi-final, India's Jasprit Bumrah produced a precision-guided missile along these lines, beating Salt's forward prod and crashing into the stumps. 'Rahul Dravid knew precisely how to use the information I presented, how to effectively communicate those points to the players," Ganjoo, 32, tells Lounge. 'It was a great feeling to make whatever small contribution I could—let's say 2-3%—to a World Cup victory for India." Ganjoo, a cosmologist by training, has produced cutting-edge cricketing analysis over the last four-five years. In January 2022, he published a Substack article on what made Indian left-arm finger-spinner Axar Patel a unique threat to batters, especially on Indian pitches, using data from HawkEye's ball-tracking technology. Without delving too much into the technical details, we can say this: the article presented compelling proof that Patel's height (at 6ft, 1 inch, he's taller than other elite spinners like Rashid Khan, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine) and angle of release made him far less predictable than his peers. The article led to Dravid bringing Ganjoo on-board. 'We had a workflow wherein I would analyse several different types of data for each batter we were facing," says Ganjoo, who is currently based in Paris. 'For every batter I prepared five-six slides, detailing, with graphs and charts, which shots they like to play the most, which shots they are least in control of, what are the kinds of deliveries they seem to be struggling against. Their performance against different lines, lengths, speeds and kinds of movement were analysed. We would present these slides to the coach (Dravid), who would then make game plans." What Dravid had taken note of wasn't Ganjoo's original article, but rather a YouTube breakdown of the same in February 2022, delivered by Australian cricket writer, podcaster and analyst Jarrod Kimber, who runs the popular Good Areas YouTube channel. A trained filmmaker, Kimber has a knack for storytelling and breaks down sophisticated, data-based arguments into actionable bits of cricketing wisdom. 'Ahead of the 2018 Caribbean Premier League, I had been hired as the analyst and assistant general manager for St. Lucia," recalls Kimber, 45, who lives in London. 'I thought I would work with the coaches, work on anything Kieron Pollard (then St. Lucia captain) wanted. Within a couple of hours of arriving I was asked, 'Are you ready to give a team talk about strategy?'. I asked for the video footage from previous seasons—there was no video. I asked if anybody had been collecting basic stats—there was nobody doing that either in the CPL." The CPL was hardly alone in its faltering first steps towards professionalisation. Issues like logistics, finances and a lack of structure were widespread roadblocks in the early days of professional analytics, explained Kimber. One morning Kimber found himself at a Durban bed and breakfast, manually chopping up hours-long game footage into usable clips, patchy internet notwithstanding, for Team Scotland. Powering the T20 age In the context of a franchise team, 'analyst" is ideally a full-time, year-long job, not just during the weeks and months before the tournament begins, not least because the analysts can help with auction strategy too. This is a simple reflection of the fact that T20 cricket has changed rapidly over the last decade and analytics has changed the way we look at the game. In T20, increasingly, we look at required runs and immediately start thinking of the number of sixes it would take to achieve the target. The six has become the primary currency of T20 cricket, in other words. Freddie Wilde, an analyst for the England and Royal Challengers Bangalore men's teams, described this process in the 2019 book Cricket 2.0: The T20 Revolution (co-written with Tim Wigmore). 'The growth of the six in T20 mirrored the ascent of the three in the NBA, which have more than doubled since 2000. The six, like the three in basketball, has a 50% greater pay-off than the previous highest scoring shot, more than making up for it being harder to execute. Both the six and the three represent the marriage of the athletically spectacular and the analytically shrewd. Increased use of data analysis in cricket has been one of a number of factors... to cause a surge in the rate of six-hitting in T20. In 2012 a six was hit every 28 balls. By 2018 that had fallen to one every 20 balls." Over the last decade, a number of companies have built up databases for cricket and developed predictive mathematical models. The rise to prominence of firms like London-based CricViz, and Chennai-based SportsMechanics began in the late 2010s, with T20 leagues starting around the world. A host of deep-pocketed new investors entered the game, eager to see their recently purchased teams being run professionally. Accordingly, a number of cricket writers, journalists and stats people transitioned into professional sports analysis. One of the reasons these changes feel significant is that cricket has been resistant to change. A number of concurrent phenomena in the 1990s, however, turned things around. One of them was the birth of Cricinfo in 1993, which introduced its popular StatsGuru tool by 2000. Then there was the emergence of live cricket as a lucrative category of TV programming. State broadcaster Doordarshan, which reached 60% of the Indian population in the 1990s, broadcast every match played at home. Suddenly, Indian TV screens lit up with 'wagon-wheels" (a diagram of the field with coloured lines indicating where batters are hitting the ball), 'run-worms" (line graphs representing cumulative runs scored across every phase of the innings) and complex fielding charts. This was the Indian viewer's first exposure to analytics in real time, and it whetted our collective appetite. This was already a passionate and involved fanbase. They were crying out not just for data but also for visualisations that communicated it in a lucid, engaging way. The rise of laptop coaches The enduring image of Bob Woolmer, coach of the South Africa team from 1994-99, is him hunched over a laptop screen, watching replays. 'The laptop coach", as he was dubbed, was one of the first international coaches to make extensive usage of computer-based analytics. Woolmer used the contemporary stratagem of 'matchups" back in the 1990s to stymie run-scoring in 50-over cricket. In the 1999 50-over World Cup, Woolmer used wireless earpieces to communicate with South Africa captain Hansie Cronje during the game. The practice was swiftly outlawed but proved, nevertheless, Woolmer's embrace of both technology and the spirit of innovation; two of the things that drive cricket analytics to this day. Woolmer died in 2007 at 58, less than a year before the first-ever T20 World Cup was played. One suspects he would have been a tactical giant in the game's most abbreviated—and analytics-friendly—format. For in the first decade of T20 cricket (2007-16), not many teams, national or franchise, were especially good from a tactical point of view. Most batters approached the 20-over game as though it were a 50-over game, only scrunched up. But where the latter format rewards batters minimising dot-balls (deliveries where no runs are scored), T20 rewards maximal four-and-six hitting. The West Indies men's team won the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cups, largely on the back of its muscular six-hitters like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell. Several factors through the 2000s—new statistical tools, the influx of money in T20 leagues, and legacy teams getting outflanked in a turbo-charged version of the game—have brought us to this current moment in cricket, where analytics and professional analysts have well-defined roles. Not just gameplay but also everything that happens off the field—training, conditioning, nutrition, etc.—is now a little more scientific, a little more organised. According to IPL commentator and former team India fast bowler Varun Aaron, 35, data and analytics can contribute to the fitness and well-being of fast bowlers (notoriously, the most injury-prone), not to mention improve their skills. 'A year ago, I was working with the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, designing a new high-performance centre for fast bowling. I put a lot of data-driven processes in place. The data is intended for the coaches, not the players; it's important not to clutter their minds with too much data," says Aaron. 'At the same time, if I tell a young fast bowler to make a technical change in their action, the data helps me prove my point with evidence, it shows the young players exactly where they can make a change that will improve their pace." Aaron, who is currently pursuing a sports science degree at the Centre for Sports Science, part of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, is representative of this new cricketing landscape, where ex-cricketers are using increasingly scientific methods to train the next generation. Of course, this comes with its own set of challenges. Effective analytics begins with widespread data-gathering and not every corner of the cricketing world is similarly blessed in this regard. In the women's game, for example, collecting enough footage and data can be a challenge. Women's games, especially domestic ones, are very often not broadcast live, or in some cases, captured with a single-camera setup that is, of course, inadequate for professional analysis. 'If you look at this year's men's IPL there are some teenaged players performing very well, about whom the average fan does not know a lot," says Krithika Venkatesan, who works for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) women's team. 'The likes of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre; YouTube already has so much footage of them playing junior-level cricket and club cricket and so on, stuff that nobody would watch live. But when it comes to the women's game, analysts find it difficult to source footage even for international players. Also there have been only three seasons of the Women's Premier League so far, so analysts have a relatively small sample set to work off." Another potentially tricky area cricket might have to negotiate in the near future is the intersection of professional analysis and organised betting. Within the super-popular fantasy sports app Dream11, for example, there is a paid tier where users can access tips by pro-analysts, and look at their finished teams and compare notes. Twitter threads by the likes of Kimber and Ganjoo have been circulated in betting circles while discussing an upcoming matchday's potential trajectories. The legal status of betting on cricket is wildly variable among cricket-playing nations: in the UK and Australia, for instance, it's legal and centrally regulated, whereas it is illegal in India and Pakistan. Former cricketers also mention another problem: over-reliance on data. Teams run the risk of over-thinking their approach and good old-fashioned cricketing 'wisdom" could be ignored. As Manjrekar notes, 'Teams should remember that the human mind is the most sophisticated analytical tool." 'I always say that cricket is like a performing art," says Dasgupta. 'There is the scientific aspect. But there's also the artistic aspect or the cricketing sixth sense, which should never be underestimated. Ideally, both should go hand in hand." What Dasgupta is describing here may well be the foundation on which analytical teams are assembled in the future, with professionals from various walks of life working in tandem towards cricketing goals. Kimber hypothesises a future picture of the global game along similar lines. 'In the long-term future, I expect many more former players to get involved with analytics, especially younger ones who retired prematurely due to injuries," he says. 'Ideally, you don't want your analytics team to be just four kids from IIT or Cambridge or wherever, who are good at analysis but have never spoken to a cricketer in their lives. What you want is a bunch of different types of people—maybe one of them used to be a journalist, another is a junior coach, a third is a former player, a fourth guy who is the math whiz." As the IPL and other T20 leagues around the world carve out increasingly large chunks of the cricketing calendar for themselves, the visibility and responsibility offered to professional analysts will only increase. This will affect the game but also how cricket is presented. If you're a fan, what would a more data-inclusive game look like? A clue might lie in how the NBA is consumed. It begins with the way the sport produces and organises stats for fans. On the official NBA website, you will get a 360-degree statistical summary of the player you're looking up—points, rebounds, assists, and so on. Now imagine a cricket scorecard where you can see what percentage of false shots played by a batter, or a bowler's economy rates and averages against right versus left-handed batters. Compared to the data presentation of an average NBA or English Premier League broadcast, there's a long way to go. Cricket has some catching up to do to rival the statistical sophistication of other major team sports like basketball and football. The good news is, everyone—players, coaches, franchises and broadcasters—seem to agree that analysis is the future. When data points start to look like runs saved or wickets taken, you know the game has truly changed. Aditya Mani Jha is a writer based in Delhi. Also read: Fantasy leagues are making cricket viewing transactional
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
'He doesn't select; he rejects': Gambhir gets smashing reply for saying 'Main selector nahi hu' on Shreyas Iyer's snub
The Indian cricket team is set to tour England for five Test matches in June. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) unveiled an 18-member squad last Saturday, which received mixed reactions from fans and the cricketing fraternity. One of the most discussed topics was the omission of Shreyas Iyer, who had an excellent domestic and international outing. The selectors were questioned for ignoring Shreyas' brilliant form, with one journalist insisting that the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, gave a detailed and elaborate answer. Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir was also asked about Shreyas Iyer's exclusion from the Test squad. In response, Gambhir said, "Main selector nahi hoon," translating to 'I am not the selector'. This reply indicated that the selection process doesn't involve coaching staff, which was quite surprising. During the 12th episode of Bails and Banter on the OTTplay app, former Indian pacer Atul Wassan took a hilarious dig at the Indian coach, saying, 'he doesn't select; he only rejects'. Reacting to Gambhir's comment, Wassan said that a coach plays a key role in the team selection process. He said, "The coach has a role in team selection, and selectors also listen to them before naming the squad." Wassan further defended the Indian head coach, saying that sometimes the coach has to go with the feel of selecting his choice of players, irrespective of being right or wrong. "If he (Gautam Gambhir) has been given this position, then I think he deserves to go with his feeling, whether it's right or wrong." Iyer's India record is not as much, but certainly not poor by any stretch of the imagination. In 14 matches, he's scored 811 runs, including a century on debut against New Zealand, only to follow it with a half-century. Besides, he scored a 92 against Sri Lanka and produced crucial knocks of 86 and 87 against Bangladesh to help India avoid a scare.
Hans India
2 days ago
- Sport
- Hans India
Roll Ball player and coach from TG to represent Team India in World Championship
Hyderabad: Roll Ball player Sreeshanth and his coach Shilpa Waghray from Telangana are part of the World Cup Roll Ball Championship (under 17) team. The Roll Ball player Sreeshanth represents Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and has become the first from Telangana to be selected to represent India in the World Cup Roll Ball Championship. The championship is slated to be held in Kenya from June 22 to 29. Sreeshanth is coached by Shilpa Waghray, who is also from Telangana and she has also been named as the assistant coach of Team India.
