India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal (BCCI X/ANI Photo)

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer has openly questioned the selection choices for India’s 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup squad, suggesting that Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jitesh Sharma should have been preferred over Ishan Kishan and Washington Sundar. Jaffer’s comments come in the wake of a shock announcement on Saturday that saw Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill axed from the squad, ahead of both the World Cup title defence and a preparatory five-match T20 series against New Zealand.

All-rounder Axar Patel has been appointed vice-captain, while Kishan earned his place following a standout campaign in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Rinku Singh also returned to the squad, taking a spot over Jitesh Sharma, partly due to India’s strategy of having two wicketkeeper-batsmen capable of opening the innings.

Wasim Jaffer post

“Why not Jaiswal and Jitesh? I would have picked them instead of Ishan and Washi. Axar is VC so he’s guaranteed to play and you can’t play Washi ahead of Varun and Kuldeep. Jitesh hasn’t done anything wrong to be dropped, and Yashasvi… there’s no need to explain why he should be in the squad in the first place,” Jaffer wrote on his X account on Sunday. Jaiswal last featured in T20Is during India’s tour of Sri Lanka in July 2024 but missed out on consistent opportunities due to his ongoing Test commitments. The 10th edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Sri Lanka and India, will feature 20 teams. India, the defending champions after a thrilling seven-run victory over South Africa in the 2024 final in Barbados, have been drawn in Group A with Pakistan, USA, Netherlands, and Namibia. India will kick off their campaign against the USA at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on February 7, followed by a clash against Namibia at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, on February 12. The marquee India-Pakistan showdown is scheduled for February 15 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, before finishing the league stage against the Netherlands at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on February 18.

NEW DELHI: Rather than having an adverse impact on BJP’s coffers, scrapping of electoral bonds in Feb 2024 ended up boosting its donations kitty in 2024-25, with electoral trusts alone disbursing over Rs 3,577 crore to the party.In 2023-24, BJP’s total receipts through voluntary contributions had stood at Rs 3,967 crore, of which Rs 1,686 crore came via bonds and Rs 856 crore through trusts. With electoral bonds scrapped, corporate donors still seeking partial anonymity – as regards party-wise break-up of their contributions – appear to have settled for the electoral trust (ET) route while retaining BJP as the top beneficiary.The party in office at the Centre cornered 83.6% of the nearly Rs 4,276 crore contributions routed through electorate trusts, according to data on the EC website. Compared to 2023-24, this marks an over four-fold rise in corporate donations to BJP through this route. Congress accounted for 7.3% and Trinamool Congress for 3.6% of contributions made through the ET route.The donations via electoral trusts are only a part of total contributions received by parties. The other sources include individuals, corporates, institutions and welfare bodies donating directly. Over the past years, the volume of non-trust donations has consistently exceeded that from contributions via trusts.Of the Rs 3,577.5 crore contribution receipts of BJP in 2024-25 though trusts, Rs 2,180.7 crore was disbursed by Prudent Electoral Trust (ET), Rs 757.6 crore by Progressive ET, Rs 460 crore by A B General ET, Rs 150 crore by New Democratic ET, Rs 30.1 crore by Harmony ET, Rs 21 crore by Triumph ET, Rs 5 crore by Jaybharath ET, Rs 3 crore by Samaj ET, Rs 9.5 lakh by Jankalyan ET and Rs 7.75 lakh by Einzigartig ET.Congress received Rs 216.3 crore from Prudent in 2024-25, Rs 77.3 crore from Progressive, Rs 15 crore from AB General ET, Rs 5 crore from New Democratic ET and Rs 9.5 lakh from Jan Kalyan ET. Thus, the grand old party received over Rs 313 crore of its total 517 crore contributions in 2024-25 via the trust route.Prudent maintained its position as the top trust donor to political parties, having disbursed a total of Rs 2,668 crore to 15 parties in the last financial year. The Tata Group-linked Progressive ET was a distant second with its total contributions at Rs 915 crore in 2024-25, of which Rs 757 crore went to BJP, Rs 77 crore to Congress and Rs 10 crore to eight other parties.Prudent’s Rs 2,668 crore kitty was distributed among BJP (Rs 2,180.7 crore); Congress (Rs 216.3 crore); Trinamool Congress (Rs 92 crore); YSR Congress Party (Rs 88 crore); TDP (Rs 40 crore); AAP (Rs 16.4 crore); Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (Rs 10 crore); BRS, JDU, BJD and AJSU (Rs 5 crore each); Sikkim Democratic Front (Rs 2.5 crore); LJP and NCP (Rs 1 crore each); and Praja Shanthi Party (Rs 50 lakh).A B General ET made Rs 460 crore worth of corporate donations to BJP and Rs 15 crore to Congress. The Mahindra Group-backed New Democratic ET gave Rs 150 crore of its total Rs 160 crore contributions to BJP, with Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT receiving Rs 5 crore each. Triumph disbursed Rs 21 crore to BJP and Rs 4 crore to Telugu Desam Party. Harmony ET contributed Rs 30.1 crore to BJP, Rs 3 crore to Shiv Sena-UBT and Rs 2 crore to NCP-Sharad Pawar. Jan Pragati Electoral Trust disbursed Rs 1 crore to Shiv Sena.Congress’s receipts in 2024-25 fell way short of the Rs 828 crore it had received via bonds in 2023-24 but were higher than its Rs 171 crore bond income in 2022-23, a non-general election year. Similarly, TMC’s Rs 184.5 crore receipts in 2024-25, of which Rs 153.5 crore were through trusts, were no match for its Rs 612 crore receipts via bonds in 2023-24. BJD, which received Rs 245.5 crore in bonds in 2023-24, received Rs 60 crore in donations, including Rs 35 crore via trusts, in 2024-25. BRS not only saw its Rs 495 crore receipts in bonds (2023-24) eroded, but also its receipts from trusts, which dipped to Rs 15 crore from Rs 85 crore in 2023-24.