Former India opener Virender Sehwag has voiced reservations about India’s bowling strength as the team prepares for the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup. Led by Suryakumar Yadav, the defending champions cruised through the group phase, winning all four matches to advance comfortably.India dominated Group A, which featured rivals Pakistan national cricket team among others, but Sehwag believes sterner examinations lie ahead. With an unbeaten South Africa national cricket team awaiting them in their opening Super 8 clash on Sunday, he pointed out that India’s bowling attack has not yet been fully tested.

“I don’t think India have been challenged yet. In the first match, India struggled a bit, but since then they have been playing consistent cricket. The real test will begin in the Super 8s. Today, India scored 193, but they also conceded 176. So India will have to look at their bowling. When we come up against a better batting side, how will this bowling unit respond and be used?” Sehwag said during a discussion on Cricbuzz.India’s most recent outing saw them overcome the Netherlands national cricket team by 17 runs in Ahmedabad, after posting 193/6 and allowing the Dutch to reach 176/7 in reply.In the same conversation, former India pacer Mohit Sharma also weighed in on the debate surrounding India’s bowling composition, especially in the death overs.“There is still doubt over which combination India will go with in the Super 8s. If you have an all-rounder like Axar Patel at No. 8, then who bowls at the death? If a team like the Netherlands can ask questions in the death overs, then bigger challenges are coming. If Arshdeep is there, you can be a little flexible since he can bowl alongside Bumrah at the death,” Mohit noted.India’s Super 8 campaign begins against South Africa on February 22 in Ahmedabad. They will then travel to Chennai to face Zimbabwe before wrapping up the phase in Kolkata against the West Indies.

Thiruvananthapuram: In a huge embarrassment to the LDF govt, Kerala HC has set aside a govt order that sanctioned Nava Kerala Citizen Response Programme, even as the state budget revealed there was no financial provision for the project. The state govt has now moved Supreme Court challenging the verdict. The budget, presented on Jan 29 by state finance minister K N Balagopal, raises questions about the financial planning behind the proposed survey, seen by critics as politically motivated and funded with public money. The govt order, passed on Oct 10, 2025, sanctioned Nava Kerala Citizen Response Programme, which reportedly aimed at gathering public feedback on development and welfare initiatives. The order stated that the Rs 20 crore required for the exercise would be met from the budget head ‘special PR campaigns’. For financial year 2025-26, the total allocation under this head was only Rs 4.6 crore. In the 2026-27 budget, the revised estimate for this was further reduced to Rs 4 crore. This clearly indicated that even the revised financial estimate did not reflect any provision for Rs 20 crore expenditure. Also, the Oct 2025 order committing Rs 20 crore did not find mention in the revised estimate placed before the assembly in Jan. In effect, the budget head identified to fund the survey does not contain sufficient allocation even on paper, raising questions about how govt intended to finance the programme. Even if SC ultimately grants relief to govt, the financial liability may not fall within the tenure of the present administration. In the absence of allocation in the current budget cycle, the payment of the Rs 20 crore is likely to spill over to the next financial year, and potentially to the next govt. If that scenario unfolds, the burden of clearing the dues arising from the the present administration’s decision would rest on its successor. The controversy has, therefore, moved beyond a legal setback to a fiscal and administrative issue: How was a Rs 20-crore commitment issued without corresponding budgetary backing? With the matter now before SC, the legal challenge continues, but the financial arithmetic reflected in the budget documents remains difficult to reconcile.

The attack on two Indian workers in Ashkelon was coordinated through WhatsApp messages, according to a video report released on February 16 by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN). The footage shows at least two men being assaulted by a group of attackers in what appears to be a public park. Hebrew captions described the incident as a “premeditated” ambush driven by “racism and malice.”KAN’s report alleged that the attackers planned the assault via private messages before targeting the Indian workers in the neighbourhood, carrying out the beating in broad daylight. “Driven by racism and malice, a group of rioters from the south of the country plotted an attack, targeting the Indian workers in the neighborhood, and beat them violently in the heart of a public park,” the broadcaster said.Following the report, the Israeli Embassy in India condemned the assault as “absolutely unacceptable.” In a post on X, the embassy confirmed that the perpetrators have been caught, adding, “The Israeli police have caught the perpetrators and will bring them to justice.”Congress leader Pawan Khera described the attack as a “premeditated racist assault” and urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to verify the victims’ condition and ensure access to adequate, free-of-cost medical care if needed.Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip, has recently seen an increase in Indian workers after Israel suspended work permits for thousands of Palestinians following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Recruitment drives in India were launched to fill the resulting labour shortage, particularly in the construction and hospitality sectors.The assault comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Israel from February 25, during which bilateral cooperation, labor mobility, and regional developments are expected to be discussed.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s father, Sanjeev Suryavanshi, opened up about his son missing his Class 10 exams. Sanjeev clarified that the 14-year-old will skip his Class 10 examination this year to focus on the upcoming IPL season and added that Vaibhav is already training with RR players.

The 14-year-old batter was scheduled to appear for the exams on Tuesday but decided to shift his attention to cricket. He was last seen in action during the U19 World Cup 2026, where he played an important role in India’s title-winning campaign. Vaibhav is now preparing to represent the Royals in IPL 2026.

My Son Is Practising With the Rajasthan Royals – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s Father

Sanjeev Sooryavanshi revealed the reason behind his son skipping the Class 10 exams. He said that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is currently training in Nagpur with Rajasthan Royals players. Sanjeev added that Vaibhav has chosen to appear for the exams next year.

“My son is practising in Nagpur with the Rajasthan Royals IPL team members. There was a lot of hype around his exams this year, so he has decided to skip them and will appear next year. Had he appeared for the exams, he would not have been able to concentrate,” Sanjeev told Mid-Day.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Was Good in Studies – Sanjeev Sooryavanshi

Sanjeev Sooryavanshi said that his son was a good student before fully committing to cricket. He stated that Vaibhav regularly scored above 90 per cent in all subjects when he attended school consistently, but his focus has now shifted completely to cricket as his main priority.

“Vaibhav was good in studies when he was regular at school. He used to get above 90 per cent in all subjects, but now his priority is cricket,” said Sanjeev (via the aforementioned source).

Vaibhav has produced outstanding numbers across formats over the past year. He has averaged over 44 in List-A cricket and over 41 in T20s. In eight List-A matches, he has scored at a strike rate of 164.95, while he has scored 701 runs in 18 T20 games at a strike rate of 204.37.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Skips Class 10 Exams to Focus on IPL 2026 Preparation

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who lives in Tajpur, Bihar, is a student at Modesty School and was scheduled to sit his Class 10 board exams from February 17 to March 11. However, he has chosen to focus on preparations for the upcoming Indian Premier League season.

Vaibhav has already begun training for IPL 2026, which starts on March 26, and is expected to play an important role for the Rajasthan Royals. The franchise signed him at the IPL 2025 auction, and he made an immediate impact in the second half of the season.

The youngster grabbed attention with a stunning 101 off 38 balls, helping Rajasthan Royals chase down 210 against Gujarat Titans in just 15.5 overs. He also impressed at the Under-19 level, scoring 175 off 80 balls to power India to 411/9 in 50 overs during the final against England.

Also read: Michael Vaughan’s ‘No one can beat India’ claim triggers jinx fears around Suryakumar Yadav’s team

New Delhi: More than six years after its enactment sparked riots in Delhi, the Supreme Court on Thursday scheduled a four-day final hearing from May 5 on 243 petitions challenging the validity of Citizenship (Amendment) Act that provides a pathway for citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who may reach India after fleeing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said the petitioners, that include Muslim organisations among which Indian Union of Muslim League has been termed the lead petitioner, and functionaries from Congress, TMC and AIMIM, would conclude their arguments within one and half days and the Centre would respond in a similar time frame. May 12 has been kept for rejoinders to be filed by petitioners.On Dec 18, 2019, a three-judge bench, which included Justice Kant, had issued notice to the Centre on the petitions challenging CAA on the ground of discrimination against Muslims who came to India from neighbouring countries but were not entitled to citizenship under CAA.Protesters, mainly Muslim women supported by political parties, had blocked a major arterial road in Shaheen Bagh here from Dec 15, 2019 till March 24, 2020. Blockades were organised in other parts of the city too. The resultant tension triggered riots in northeast Delhi on Feb 23, 2020 that lasted several days and left 53 dead.SC had last heard the petitions on March 19, 2024, the year the Centre framed Citizenship (Amendment) Rules. The Centre had filed its response to the petitions in Oct 2022 and termed CAA a benign piece of legislation providing Indian citizenship to members of those communities who have been persecuted for the last 70 years in the three neighbouring Islamic countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.Countering the plea that CAA discriminated against Muslims, the Centre had said, “CAA does not seek to recognise or seek to provide answers to all or any kind of purported persecution that may be taking place across the world or that may have taken place previously anywhere in the world.”On Thursday, the bench agreed with solicitor general Tushar Mehta that the challenge to CAA in relation to Assam and Tripura, where separate accords set deadlines for entry of migrants from Bangladesh, could be de-linked from the ones which have questioned the law from a pan-India perspective.

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New Delhi: Imagine a world where your home unlocks as you approach, adjusts the temperature before you feel the chill, quietly monitors your health, and safeguards your property without a single visible barrier. Your car becomes a rolling living room, steering, braking, and navigating hazards long before they enter your line of sight. In factories, humans no longer wrestle with machines but supervise fleets of intelligent systems. This, said Lars Reger, global chief technology officer at NXP Semiconductors, is the next phase of technological evolution: “A world that anticipates and automates.” Over the next decade, Reger predicts that tens of billions of smart, connected robots will be embedded in homes, cars, hospitals and infrastructure. However different their form factors, they will share four essential capabilities: Sensing, thinking, connecting, and acting. Devices will perceive their environment, draw on cloud intelligence, make decisions, and execute them physically. Yet none of this matters, he warned, if users cannot trust the device. Trust means functional safety and cybersecurity – braking systems that never fail, thermostats that do not overheat homes, and cars that cannot be hacked. Autonomous systems have faltered before because, in his view, they were designed incorrectly. The solution, he argued, is to take inspiration from biology. The human body separates fast, deterministic reflexes from higher cognition, Not every decision requires a vast AI brain. “How big does the AI really have to be?” he asked, noting that an ant’s 100,000 neurons can create an efficient transportation system. The future, according to Reger, lies at the edge: Ultra-low-power chips, AI accelerators consuming as little as seven watts, radar that can see through fog and car-to-car communication that functions almost like telepathy. Data centres will remain important, but the real democratisation of AI, he insisted, “lies at the famous edge in the end device” – in billions of quiet, trusted machines that anticipate our needs before we voice them.

A number of prominent figures from the cricketing world — including Indian icons Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar — have extended support to former Pakistan all-rounder Imran Khan, who has been incarcerated for more than two years. Reports suggest that Khan, Pakistan’s Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, has nearly lost vision in one eye, allegedly due to medical negligence during his imprisonment. He was ousted from office following multiple corruption charges.The push for better treatment of Khan gathered momentum earlier this week when former Australia captain Greg Chappell initiated a petition urging authorities to ensure proper medical care for the jailed leader. The appeal has been endorsed by several former international captains.In a conversation with Australian journalists Gideon Haigh and Peter Lalor, Chappell explained what prompted him to take action.“And so, you know, I’ve been following and keeping in contact with him as much as possible, but since he’s been in jail, it’s been impossible. I’m in touch with one of his very best friends on a regular basis, and not even his family have been able to see him while he’s in jail. So, this has been sort of troubling me for a while, but I thought, well… What difference does one voice make? And it was in conversation with my friend [name not clear], and he said, Well, why don’t you talk to other captains, and see if you can get a group of captains that make a statement that that might carry a bit more weight.”Given the long-standing political tensions between India and Pakistan, and Khan’s firm stance toward India during his tenure as Prime Minister, public backing from Indian cricket greats was far from certain. Although Khan had visited India multiple times as both a cricketer and political leader and had forged personal bonds there, many of his Indian acquaintances had stayed silent following his imprisonment.Chappell admitted he was struck by how swiftly Gavaskar and Kapil agreed to support the initiative. “Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev probably had more pressure than the rest of us, but they both reacted instantly. You’ve probably seen Sunny’s comments… They’ve been friends for a long time,” he said.Earlier, Gavaskar had spoken about his long association with Khan in remarks that drew attention on both sides of the border. “I have known Imran since he was 17 years old, when India was playing at Worcester… after the Test series win at The Oval. He was trying to qualify as an overseas player for Worcestershire then. Whatever the political differences there, we believe that he should be looked after in a humane manner and given proper medical care,” he told The Indian Express.Others who have signed the petition include Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Allan Border, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Michael Brearley, David Gower, Steve Waugh, John Wright, Kim Hughes and Belinda Clark.