In a historic display of leadership and fast-bowling prowess, Australian captain Pat Cummins has achieved a monumental milestone during the Adelaide Test of Ashes 2025-26 series vs England.

Pat Cummins equals Imran Khan’s legendary feat during 3rd Ashes 2025-26 Test vs England

By spearheading Australia’s victory in the third Test at the Adelaide Oval on December 21, 2025, Cummins became only the second captain in the history of Test cricket to claim 150 wickets while leading his side. This achievement places him in the company of the legendary Pakistani all-rounder and captain Imran Khan, who previously stood alone in this elite category. Cummins reached the 151-wicket mark as captain in just his 38th Test at the helm, boasting a superior strike rate and average compared to many of his predecessors.

Elite company: Most wickets in Tests as captain

Only ten captains in the history of the game have surpassed the 100-wicket mark, but the gap between the top two and the rest of the field is now significant.

Also READ: England captain Ben Stokes opens up on another Ashes series defeat in Australia

A milestone-heavy Adelaide Test for Cummins

Cummins’s performance in the Adelaide Test was not just about the 150-wicket captaincy club; he simultaneously rewrote several other sections of the record books:

• Surpassing Mitchell Johnson: With his 315th career Test wicket, Cummins moved past Mitchell Johnson (313 wickets) to become Australia’s 6th highest wicket-taker of all time in Test cricket.
• The Root Nemesis: Cummins dismissed Joe Root for the 13th time in Tests during the second innings. This is the most any bowler has dismissed the English batting maestro in the five-day format.
• Ashes Dominance: The Australian skipper has now raced to 97 Ashes wickets in just 20 matches, maintaining an average of 23.57.

Despite his red-hot form, Cummins indicated following the Adelaide victory that he might miss the upcoming Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Having secured a commanding 3-0 lead to retain the Ashes, the captain suggested a reassessment of risk regarding his workload.

“Now that the series has been won, there might be a sense of job’s done and let’s reassess the risk. I doubt I’ll be playing Melbourne, and then we’ll have a chat about Sydney.” Cummins said to the media after Adelaide Test.

With Cummins potentially stepping back to rest, Australia may look to their bench strength to complete a potential whitewash, while the captain cements his legacy as one of the greatest bowling leaders the game has ever seen.

Also WATCH: Ashes 2025-26: Glenn McGrath’s reaction breaks the internet as Nathan Lyon surpasses him on Australia’s all-time wicket-taker list | Adelaide Test, Day 2

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Star wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has been named the captain of Jharkhand for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2025/26 season. The announcement was made by the Jharkhand State Cricket Association on Monday. The tournament will begin on December 24, and Jharkhand will play their first match against Karnataka in Ahmedabad.

Along with Kishan, the Jharkhand team includes several well-known names. Players like Virat Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Anukul Roy, Robin Minz and Abhinav Sharan are part of the squad. Kumar Kushagra has been named vice-captain and will also share wicketkeeping duties.Kishan will lead the team both as captain and wicketkeeper. The selectors will hope his leadership helps Jharkhand perform well in the one-day tournament.Kishan comes into the Vijay Hazare Trophy after a brilliant run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2025/26. He led Jharkhand to their first-ever SMAT title. Kishan was in top form throughout the tournament. He scored 517 runs in 10 matches at an impressive average of 57.44. His performance included two centuries and two half-centuries.His best knock came in the final against Haryana, where he scored a match-winning 101. That innings played a big role in Jharkhand lifting the trophy for the first time.Because of his strong performances in domestic cricket, Kishan has also earned a recall to the Indian team. He has been selected for the T20 World Cup 2026. In the national side, he will be the second-choice wicketkeeper-batter behind Sanju Samson.The Indian team will be led by Suryakumar Yadav in the upcoming World Cup. Shubman Gill has been left out due to fitness and form issues, while Axar Patel has returned as vice-captain.Jharkhand Squad For Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025/26: Ishan Kishan (WK & captain), Virat Singh, Utkarsh Singh, Kumar Kushagra (WK & vice-captain), Robin Minz, Anukul Roy, Sharandeep Singh, Shikhar Mohan, Pankaj Kumar (WK), Bala Krishna, Md Kounain Quraishi, Shubh Sharma, Amit Kumar, Manishi, Abhinav Sharan, Sushant Mishra, Vikash Singh, Saurabh Shekhar, Rajandeep Singh, Shubham Singh.

NEW DELHI: India and New Zealand on Monday concluded a free trade agreement (FTA) that is expected to deepen economic ties between the two nations, with both countries vowing to double bilateral trade in the next five years.The FTA, the third to be sealed this year after the ones with UK and Oman, will give India tariff-free access to the island nation’s markets. This is expected to enhance the competitiveness of India’s labour-intensive sectors, including textiles, apparel, leather, footwear, marine products, gems and jewellery, handicrafts, engineering goods and automobiles, integrating them deeper into global value chains. Against the backdrop of prevalent geopolitical tensions, the latest trade deal also marks a key economic and strategic milestone in New Delhi’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.

New Zealand to facilitate $20bn investment

India has offered market access to New Zealand in over 70% of tariff lines, covering 95% of bilateral trade value while excluding almost 30% of products. In addition, New Zealand has also promised to facilitate an investment of $20 billion over the next 15 years.“Concluded in just nine months, this historic milestone reflects a strong political will and shared ambition to deepen economic ties between the two nations,” PM Modi said on microblogging site X while announcing the deal with New Zealand’s PM Christopher Luxon. The two leaders also spoke over the phone.To ensure protection to farmers and domestic industry, market access excludes dairy, coffee, milk, cream, cheese, yoghurt, whey, caseins, onion, sugar, spices, edible oils, and rubber. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal vowed that India will never open up its diary sector in any FTA.“This FTA provides opportunities for all sections of our export community, opens up new doors for new exporters with new products wishing to diversify their export basket and at the same time helps every region of the country — north, south, east, west, northeast — in different areas,” said Goyal while addressing a news conference.“It has some very interesting new elements of technical collaboration in fruit products, fruit cultivation, in honey production and other areas including dairy, where they will bring the latest modern technology to India to help our farmers, our dairy persons increase incomes,” said Goyal.The FTA provides improved entry and stay provisions for Indian professionals, students and youth, including work opportunities during their study stints, post-study work pathways, dedicated visa arrangements and a working holiday visa framework.The FTA opens skilled employment pathways through a new temporary employment entry visa for Indian professionals in skilled occupations, with a quota of 5,000 visas at any given time and a stay of up to three years. This covers Indian professions such as Ayush practitioners, yoga instructors.

MUMBAI: RBI sold a net $11.9 billion in Oct 2025 to support the rupee, reinforcing its role as the stabilising force in the currency market. Data from RBI’s Dec bulletin shows that the central bank stayed active across both spot and forward markets through FY25 to reduce volatility and keep market conditions orderly.In the spot, or OTC, market, the RBI sold more dollars than it bought to provide liquidity. Gross dollar purchases jumped sharply by 704% to $17.7 billion in Oct from $2.2 billion in Sept. At the same time, gross dollar sales rose 192% to $29.6 billion. This led to net dollar sales of $11.9 billion in Oct, a 50% increase from $7.9 billion in Sept, showing stronger intervention to counter pressure on the rupee. Taken together, RBI’s cumulative net dollar sales in FY25 up to Oct stood at $34.5 billion, or Rs 2,91,233 crore at contract rates.

Alongside spot market action, RBI relied more on forward contracts to influence future expectations without immediately using up reserves. By end-Oct, outstanding net forward sales increased 7.1% to $63.6 billion from $59.4 billion at end-Sept. This larger forward position acts as a buffer, reassuring markets that dollars will be supplied in the future if needed.In the exchange-traded currency futures market, RBI kept its net position neutral. In Oct, it bought and sold $2.3 billion each, resulting in no net purchase or sale. Even so, trading activity rose sharply, with total volumes up 73.5% from Sep. Outstanding net futures sales declined 9.8% to $1.4 billion by end-Oct.The data also suggest RBI was defending the rupee from dropping to 89 levels. The effective intervention price in Oct worked out to around Rs 88.25 per dollar, only slightly lower than Rs 88.35 in Sept, despite the large rise in the amount of dollars sold. This points to efforts to keep the rupee from weakening beyond the Rs 89 mark during a volatile period. For comparison, the average intervention rate for FY25 up to Oct was lower, at about Rs 84.39/$, reflecting the rupee’s broader depreciation in late 2025 amid trade tensions and capital outflows.

American company FedEx has come under fire after a multibillion-dollar federal delivery contract coincided with a sharp increase in the company’s hiring of foreign workers, even as it cut hundreds of US jobs across multiple states.In December 2022, the US Transportation Command awarded FedEx a contract worth $2.24 billion for the Next Generation Delivery Service-2 programme. The base period runs from April 2023 to September 2026, with options that could extend the work through 2030.According to the Dallas Express, data shows that at the time of the contract award, FedEx had roughly two dozen approved H-1B visa workers. By 2025, that number had risen to about 500. Some of the visa positions were listed with salaries ranging from $100,000 and $115,000.However, the surge in foreign hiring occurred alongside layoffs of US employees. In November 2025, FedEx announced plans to eliminate 856 jobs at one of its warehouses. Earlier in the year, 305 positions were cut in Fort Worth and 131 more in Garland and Plano. Across the country, layoffs also hit Memphis, Kentucky, New York, and Pennsylvania.A company spokesperson told Dallas Express: “FedEx is committed to offering employees the opportunity to grow and advance in their careers. Doing so helps our team members thrive, and FedEx prosper. Our strategy is centred around recruiting a skilled workforce that meets our unique business needs and hiring the most qualified candidates.”Sources familiar with the company said much of the H-1B growth is because of corporate entities joining hands and does not have any direct relation to the eliminated positions, which are not roles eligible for H-1B visas.H-1B visas are typically reserved for jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher, but the program has become a political flashpoint recently. US vice president JD Vance urged companies: “You Might Try Hiring Americans.”Meanwhile, most MAGA commentators and GOP supporters want a total ban on the H-1B system, saying that the program steals jobs and opportunities from native Americans and hands them cheaply to immigrant workers. Most workers coming on H-1B are ready to work for lower salaries than US labour, automatically making them a more efficient option for American employers. However, right-wing media cited how American employees were forced to train their foreign replacements before getting the boot.Business leaders such as ex-DOGE lead Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have said foreign labour is necessary and that America needs that global talent to run its crucial tech and IT sectors.FedEx said that it complies with all laws and employs a variety of workers irrespective of their ethnicity. “Across our business, we employ a wide range of roles, requiring a variety of skillsets and are committed to complying with all applicable federal immigration laws,” the spokesperson said. The company has not directly linked its federal contract to its H-1B hiring or domestic layoffs.