Australia have strengthened their formidable Ashes campaign with the return of captain Pat Cummins, naming him in a 15-member squad for the third Test in Adelaide beginning December 17. Cummins’ comeback marks the only change to the group, but it brings significant implications for team balance as the hosts eye sealing the Ashes with a commanding 2–0 lead already in hand.

Pat Cummins back after lengthy injury layoff

After weeks on the sidelines, Cummins is finally set to don the Baggy Green again. The fast bowler had missed the opening two Tests due to a lumbar stress injury that had kept him out of competitive cricket since Australia’s tour of the West Indies in July. Although he pushed for selection at the Gabba, team management preferred caution, allowing him additional time to regain rhythm and workload through extended match-simulation spells.

His return now provides Australia with both leadership stability and a strengthening of their pace artillery—an area that has functioned well but will only benefit further with Cummins’ control and strike power.

Usman Khawaja keeps his place amid batting uncertainties

Experienced opener Usman Khawaja, who has had a restricted role so far in the series due to back trouble, also keeps his place. Khawaja did not feature in Perth and was unavailable for the second Test at Brisbane, but selectors remain confident in his value at the top of the order. His inclusion, however, raises selection puzzles, especially with Jake Weatherald and Beau Webster also part of the extended squad.

The decision on whether Khawaja returns to the XI—or whether Australia persist with their temporary combinations—could significantly influence the team’s structure heading into a decisive Test.

Also READ: England pacer Mark Wood ruled out of the remaining Ashes 2025-26 vs Australia; replacement announced

Bowling conundrum after duo’s return

With both Cummins and veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon are back into the playing XI, Australia face some difficult choices in the pace department. Scott Boland, Michael Neser, and Brendan Doggett have all contributed as rotational options, but at least two of them may be pushed out of contention for the Adelaide Test. Lyon’s comeback, in particular, adds a layer of complexity, as the Adelaide Oval often rewards spin, especially in day-night conditions. His presence alongside Cummins and Mitchell Starc may narrow the available seam-bowling spots even further.

Holding a commanding 2–0 advantage with three Tests remaining, Australia are perfectly positioned to retain the Ashes on home soil once again. A victory in Adelaide would wrap up the urn early, allowing the hosts to play the final two matches with freedom.
With Cummins’ leadership and experience back at the helm, the Australian camp will feel even more confident about extending their dominance over England in what has already been a compelling series.

Australia squad for third Ashes Test

Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

Also READ: Ashes 2025-26: Ricky Ponting slams Jofra Archer for engaging in war of words with Steve Smith in Gabba Test

NEW DELHI: In one of the largest global tech investment flows into India, American tech giant Amazon on Wednesday committed a mega $35 billion for its operations here, over and above the $40 billion that it has already put into the country.The ecommerce, cloud and media giant said that the investments will be made by 2030 as it goes big on business expansion while focusing on three strategic pillars: AI-driven digitization, export growth and job creation

Announcement comes a day after Microsoft’s $17.5B promise

Amazon’s mega bucks come a day after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had announced a $17.5 billion investment in AI and cloud infrastructure in India.“By 2030, Amazon plans to create one million additional job opportunities, boosting cumulative exports to $80 billion, delivering AI benefits to 15 million small businesses, hundreds of millions of shoppers, and providing AI education and career exploration opportunities to 4 million government school students,” the company said.“We are humbled to have been a part of India’s digital transformation journey over the past 15 years, with Amazon’s growth in India perfectly aligned with the vision of an Atmanirbhar and Viksit Bharat. We have invested at scale in growing the physical and digital infrastructure for small businesses in India, creating millions of jobs, and taking Made-in-India global. Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue being a catalyst for India’s growth, as we democratize access to AI for millions of Indians, create 1 million job opportunities, and quadruple cumulative ecommerce exports enabled to $80 billion by 2030,” Amit Agarwal, Senior VP for Emerging Markets at Amazon said.Amazon said it has enabled over $20 billion in exports from India. “The company has now set a goal of enabling $80 billion in cumulative ecommerce exports from India by 2030.”The company launched “Accelerate Exports” — a manufacturing-focused initiative — designed to connect digital entrepreneurs with manufacturers while enabling manufacturers to become successful global sellers. “As part of the program, Amazon will host on-ground onboarding drives in over 10 manufacturing clusters across India, including Tirupur, Kanpur, and Surat. At the Smbhav summit, Amazon announced a key partnership with the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India to grow and scale the program across India,” the company said.

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Fundamentals are turning in favour of India. Higher growth and corporate earnings are achievable in the quarters ahead, says Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited. (AI image)

Stock market today: Nifty50 and BSE Sensex, the Indian equity benchmark indices, opened in green on Wednesday. While Nifty50 was above 25,850, BSE Sensex was up over 100 points. At 9:17 AM, Nifty50 was trading at 25,865.25, up 26 points or 0.099%. BSE Sensex was at 84,804.28, up 138 points.Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited says, “As the year slowly draws to a close the market structure is becoming challenging. Heavy selling in the broader market is justified since valuations have been elevated and kept high only on the strength of liquidity. This is unsustainable. But the weakness in the overall market and sustained selling by FIIs are a bit disappointing. A major concern is the excessive delay in the finalisation of the US-India trade deal. A remark by President Trump yesterday that action should be taken on India for dumping rice in the US hurt sentiments further.”“Fundamentals are turning in favour of India. Higher growth and corporate earnings are achievable in the quarters ahead. The fiscal and monetary stimulus provided this year have started producing results. The excessively low inflation rate, which impacted nominal GDP growth, also will start rising in the coming quarters. This is significant since corporate earnings growth will be influenced more by nominal GDP growth rather than by real GDP growth. The fact that valuations in the large cap segment have become fair is another positive. These positive factors will start weighing on the market soon. Investors have to keep faith and wait patiently for the fundamentals to play out.”The S&P 500 declined on Tuesday as investors anticipated hawkish Federal Reserve messaging despite potential rate cuts. JPMorgan contributed significantly to the benchmark index’s decline following the bank’s announcement of substantial 2026 expenses.Asian markets showed modest gains following Wall Street’s subdued session, with investors awaiting the Federal Reserve’s final interest rate decision of the year.Foreign portfolio investors recorded net sales of Rs 3,760 crore on Tuesday, whilst domestic institutional investors showed net purchases of Rs 6,225 crore.(Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market, other asset classes or personal finance management tips given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India)

ICC broadcast rights in jeopardy as JioStar exits. (Image: Agencies)

The development around JioStar’s ultimatum to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that it cannot service the remaining two years of the media rights contract due to “deep financial losses” conveys many things, but certainly not them exiting the deal. Like conjoined twins, the federation and the broadcaster have no choice but to follow the unique and challenging reality of their existence — they can neither afford to live with each other nor live without each other.

On one hand, cricket has only one major broadcaster in Jio Star, and on the other, cricket is JioStar’s only recourse if they need to keep their subscription game going. So, nobody’s going anywhere.

Unsustainable prices

In 2023, when Disney India bought the ICC media rights at $3.04 billion, there were a total of 179 matches for the taking over the four-year cycle. Technically speaking, Disney India bid Rs 138.7 crore per game. The cost of a single IPL game at today’s global broadcast rights value is Rs 114 crore, which JioStar has been finding it difficult to sustain. Here, we’re talking about a tournament played at India prime time, involving top Indian and global cricketers, and is perched right up there among the global sports properties. Then, how exactly at Rs 138 crore per game will the broadcaster ever be able to sustain the value of ICC cricket rights? For the record, of the 179 matches, India will play only 28 games plus knockouts, if they qualify. In 2024, when Jio was taking over Disney India, did they not know the repercussions of the deal? They did, and that is the only reason why Disney exited the India market at a discounted value. Today, having acquired those rights at a discount, Jio expects the ICC to further renegotiate, only because they know there’s no other broadcaster in the fray.

All eggs in one basket

Today, if JioStar decides to stay away from cricket rights, cricket federations – read ICC, IPL, BCCI – simply do not have a Plan B. In fact, their Plan B will be to renegotiate and come back to Plan A, which is to stick with JioStar at a discounted price. It is precisely this lack of choice that leaves the members of the ICC with no other option but to be at the mercy of the current broadcaster. The ICC has two major events coming up in 2026 and 2027 — the men’s T20 World Cup, followed by the men’s 50-over World Cup. It is to be waited and seen if the ICC members will sit across the table with JioStar ahead of these events to guarantee them a better pricing in the next rights cycle to allow the cricketing caravan to keep moving. That is clearly the only end game to this whole exercise.

What next?

The ruckus is not lost on the IPL franchises. In fact, ever since the mega merger between Jio and Disney happened, they had seen this coming. When a brand valuation and consultancy firm like Brand Finance comes out with a report that says IPL’s 2025 brand value is down by 20% — from $12b to $9.6b — one can pin it down to the broadcast rights, IPL’s biggest revenue source. In 2022, multiple bidders had fought tooth and nail to grab IPL rights, and it brought in a cash influx of Rs 48,300 cr. In 2026-27, only two broad casters will be in the fray (and one of them only for TV). What kind of a hike can the industry expect? The IPL rights stood at a billion in 2008, got sold for $2.6b in 2017 and got resold for $6.5b in 2022.

While franchises are wondering what next, the industry is speculating a five to 10% hike, no more. That’s the long and short of the media rights story.

Miami voters have elected Democrat Eileen Higgins as the city’s first female mayor and the first Democrat to hold the office in nearly three decades. In Tuesday’s runoff, Higgins, a former county commissioner, defeated Republican Emilio González, a former city manager backed by former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.“Together, we turned the page on years of chaos and corruption and opened the door to a new era for our city, one defined by ethical, accountable leadership that delivers real results for the people,” Higgins said in a statement after the voivtory, promising to lead a government “that finally earns the public’s trust,” as cited by NYT. Although Miami’s elections are officially nonpartisan, both major parties played an active role in the campaign. US President Donald Trump endorsed González, while the Democratic National Committee backed Higgins. In the days leading up to the vote, several prominent national Democrats traveled to Miami to campaign alongside her, an unusual show of support for a low-turnout, off-year local election. Higgins secured victory the victory after topping the first round of voting on November 4, where she received 35 per cent of the vote compared to González’s 19 per cent.

Who is Eileen Higgins?

Higgins will make history as Miami’s first female mayor and its first non-Hispanic mayor since the 1990s, breaking a three-decade dominance of Cuban American Republicans in city politics.Higgins, a trained mechanical engineer and former Peace Corps director in Belize, previously represented what she described as a Republican-leaning district on the county commission. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.On the campaign trail, she pledged to focus on addressing residents’ everyday concerns if elected, as cited by Politico. Higgins had served as a well-known county commissioner for eight years, representing a district that included Miami’s downtown. In the November 4 election, she also secured the top spot across all five of the city’s commission districts.She received a social media endorsement from former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is a former mayor and was a 2020 presidential candidate.She also led in all five of the city’s commission districts and will succeed outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez, who had briefly sought the Republican presidential nomination, as cited by the NYT. Miami, home to roughly half a million residents, is Florida’s second-largest city after Jacksonville. While the city, like the state, has trended Republican in recent election cycles, Higgins’ Democratic victory stands out as particularly notable.

US President Donald Trump addressed America’s affordability concerns at a campaign rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, saying that the prices have come down “tremendously.” He moved to reassure Americans frustrated by high living costs and dismissed Democrat’s criticism over inflation as a “hoax”. The event was a shift from his usual arguments about affordability, away from White House briefings and social media posts, into a more energetic campaign setting. Trump asserted that consumer prices are falling sharply. “Prices are coming down tremendously from the highest prices in the history of our country.” His remarks followed earlier claims made at the White House a day earlier, when he insisted, “We’re bringing prices way down,” and argued that Democrats had created the affordability crisis while he was “fixing it”.

Low confidence in Trump

The push comes at a difficult moment for Trump. Surveys in recent weeks show a drop in public confidence in his handling of the economy, even as the White House says it expects inflation to ease next year. And although he has promised to bring prices down quickly, only 33% of American adults approve of his economic management, according to a November survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Following lacklustre Republican performances in last month’s off-cycle elections, administration officials have been trying to convince voters that the current cost pressures are unrelated to Trump’s policies. But price levels have remained stubborn, rising again after Trump introduced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April. Businesses had warned that the sweeping import taxes could lead to higher consumer prices and reduced hiring, even as inflation had begun calming after hitting a 40-year peak in 2022. Trump has instead repeatedly blamed his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for the problem. His appearance in Monroe County, a region that backed Biden in 2020 but swung to Trump in 2024, was closely watched for signs of how voters view his claims. The county, anchored by the tourism-driven Pocono Mountains and increasingly attractive to people priced out of New York City, is set to play a key role in next year’s fight for control of the US House. The rally was held indoors, a change from the larger venues Trump used last year. It also placed him squarely inside the district represented by Republican Rob Bresnahan, who won his 2024 House race by only about 1.5 percentage points and is now a key Democratic target. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is among those vying to challenge him.

‘A plus plus plus’ economy ?

Trump has continued to boast about economic performance even as many Americans struggle with rising costs. On a Politico podcast, he rated the economy “A-plus”, later amplifying that to “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus”. He has pointed to relaxed auto fuel efficiency standards and agreements aimed at lowering list prices for prescription drugs as evidence that he is easing pressures on consumers. He has also argued that significant cuts to the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate would lower mortgage and auto-loan costs, despite concerns from critics that such moves could worsen inflation. National indicators show a mixed picture: the stock market has climbed this year, and economic growth appeared solid in the third quarter. Yet many households say the cost of housing, groceries, electricity, education and other essentials continues to erode their incomes. The administration maintains that inflation will subside next year, partly due to investment in artificial intelligence and manufacturing.Trump has repeatedly argued that concerns about affordability are being exaggerated for political effect. Speaking in the Oval Office earlier, he said “affordability is the greatest con job” by Democrats, insisting that his own past actions show he is the one genuinely addressing the issue.