Yuzvendra Chahal opted for Sanju Samson over Kishan, even though Samson has been struggling for runs. (Image credit: Agencies)

NEW DELHI: Despite enjoying a stellar run in the recently concluded T20I series against New Zealand, in-form left-hander Ishan Kishan failed to make it into spinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s preferred playing XI for India’s T20 World Cup opener against the United States on Saturday.Chahal opted for Sanju Samson over Kishan, even though Samson has been struggling for runs. Samson was picked to open alongside Abhishek Sharma, replacing Kishan at the top of the order.

The New Zealand T20I series had presented Samson with a chance to cement his spot after returning to the opening role following a three-month gap. However, he managed just 46 runs at an average of 9.20. Kishan, in contrast, amassed 215 runs at an impressive average of 53.75 and a strike rate of 231.18, highlighted by a century in the fifth T20I.Reigning champions India will head into the T20 World Cup as strong favourites on home soil.Led by Suryakumar Yadav, India open their campaign against the United States at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.On paper, India look well placed to defend their title. Since lifting the 2024 T20 World Cup after defeating South Africa in the final, they have won 33 of their 41 T20Is, losing just six.Their recent 4–1 home series victory over New Zealand further showcased the team’s depth and adaptability in familiar conditions.Chahal’s preferred playing 11: Abhisehk Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku singh, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

India squad for 2026 T20 World Cup 2026

Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh

MUMBAI: The Muslim festival of Shab E’ Baraat or the Night of Forgiveness will be celebrated tonight on the intervening night of Feb 3-4.“Laylat ul’ Baraat is when Allah Almighty writes the Book of Deeds for the following year, including birth, marriage, death and significant life events,” said Maulana Shahabuddin Shaikh of Andheri West.“Muslims seek Allah’s forgiveness by reciting verses from the Holy Quran, and send Durood Sharif blessings upon Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Thousands of people visit graveyards to pray for peace for the souls of their dear departed,” said Maulana Mohammed Saad of Andheri Muslim Qabrastan Masjid, Four Bungalows.The festival of Shab E’ Baraat occurs on the 15th night of the Muslim holy month of Shaban. Since the Islamic date changes at sunset, 15 Shaban will begin on the evening of Feb 3 and last until dusk Feb 4. Some people observe a fast on both days, others opt for Feb 4.The intervening night of Feb 3-4 will see thousands of men stream into mosques and graveyards. They bring sacks full of flowers and loose petals to sprinkle upon each grave, not just those of their own relatives and friends. Large cans are used to shower water upon the graves.Four Bungalows Qabrastan is the final resting place of film industry stalwarts like Kaifi Azmi, Shaukat Kaifi, Khayyam, Farooque Shaikh and Ishan Arya.Four Bungalows Qabrastan had received 18,000 visitors at Shab E’ Baraat in 2025, says Maulana Saad. This year too the numbers could cross 15,000. Police permission has been sought and volunteers are preparing to regulate traffic once the crowds build.On Monday volunteers at the mosque finished applying a fresh coat of paint to each of the 1,676 individual graves located here. White drapes and floral bouquets were being hoisted and the premises was cleaned thoroughly. The 130 children studying at the affiliate Madarsa Talimul Quran located inside the compound too were looking forward to the festival with eagerness.Charity and gifting is a prominent feature of Shab E’ Baraat. People line up to donate cooked meals and sweet delicacies to children in madrassas, mosques, orphans and underprivileged families. Bookings are made well in advance and last-minute donors often have to seek other alternatives. Women prepare chana dal halwa or suji halwa at home and offer it as Esaal E’ Sawaab to the souls of departed relatives.The holy month of Ramzan follows Shaban so another excitement is in the air as Muslims prepare to launch the annual fast likely Feb 18.

US President Donald Trump on Monday shared a photograph of New Delhi’s iconic India Gate on his social media platform, Truth Social, while reiterating his vision of building a massive triumphal arch in Washington DC.Posting the image, Trump wrote, “India’s beautiful Triumphal Arch. Ours will be the greatest of them all!” The post came amid his renewed push for what he has described as an “Independence Arch” in the US capital.

Trump has repeatedly said that he wants Washington, DC to have the world’s largest triumphal arch, calling it a symbol of national pride.

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Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, he said that the idea of such a monument had existed for nearly 200 years. “For 200 years, they wanted to build an arch,” Trump said. He added that while at least 57 cities across the world already have triumphal arches, Washington remains “the only major city” without one.Earlier, Trump announced that work on the proposed arch is expected to begin within the next few months. According to The Independent, the structure is planned near the Lincoln Memorial and along the Arlington Memorial Bridge, marking what Trump has described as a grand entrance to the nation’s capital.The proposed monument has also drawn comparisons with France’s Arc de Triomphe. Trump has indicated a preference for the largest of three proposed designs, reportedly standing about 250 feet tall, more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial. He has argued that the scale would reflect America’s stature and coincide with the country’s 250th anniversary of independence this year.Also Read |‘Arc de Trump’: Is US president building his own Arc de Triomphe in Washington, DC? — What we all need to knowReacting to the proposal, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said, “The Arch is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, DC, but throughout the world. President Trump’s bold vision will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and be felt by generations to come.”India Gate is a historic monument located at the heart of New Delhi. Standing 42 metres tall, India Gate is an Arc-de-Triomphe–style war memorial designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens.It commemorates more than 70,000 Indian soldiers who died fighting for the British Army during World War I, as well as those killed in the Afghan war of 1919. The Amar Jawan Jyoti, added after Independence, honours Indian soldiers who lost their lives in the 1971 war.

The cricketing world is bracing for a massive geopolitical showdown after Indian spin legend Harbhajan Singh launched a blistering verbal attack on the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Pakistan government. Following Islamabad’s directive to skip the high-stakes clash against India in the T20 World Cup 2026, Harbhajan dismissed the move as total drama designed to mislead the public.

The controversy erupted after the Pakistan government cleared its national team to participate in the tournament but strictly barred them from taking the field against India on February 15. The move is reportedly an act of solidarity with Bangladesh, a justification that Harbhajan finds hypocritical and financially motivated.

Harbhajan Singh questions Pakistan’s consistency over their stance on India boycott

Speaking on his YouTube channel, the Turbanator didn’t hold back, questioning the sudden surge of political stance when compared to previous tournaments where revenue was at stake. He challenged the Pakistani authorities to remain adamant if they truly believe in their cause, rather than using the sport as a tool for optics.

“What benefit are you going to get from this? This is just to show arrogance, If you really think that you can do something like this, then be adamant. Let’s see if you really have the guts,” Harbhajan stated.

Harbhajan highlighted the irony of the situation, noting that Pakistan participated in previous events like the Asia Cup despite regional tensions because they were “not ready to leave that revenue.” He argued that if patriotism wasn’t the primary driver then, it’s hard to take the current boycott seriously now. By framing the boycott as a show of support for a third party, Harbhajan believes the PCB is ignoring the desires of cricket fans within its own borders who live for the India-Pakistan rivalry.

Also READ: T20 World Cup 2026: Parthiv Patel reveals his ideal India playing XI, excludes Harshit Rana

The looming shadow of ICC sanctions and hosting rights against Pakistan

Beyond the immediate heat of the rivalry, Harbhajan pointed toward the long-term consequences for Pakistan cricket. The International Cricket Council (ICC) maintains a strict code regarding government interference in sports and the fulfillment of tournament obligations. A refusal to play a scheduled fixture at a neutral venue—where no security threat was cited—could trigger a domino effect of disciplinary actions.

• Financial penalties: Forfeiting a match of this magnitude results in massive losses in broadcasting revenue, which the ICC could recover through heavy fines.
• Points forfeiture: India would likely be awarded a walkover, significantly impacting Pakistan’s progression in the T20 World Cup.
• Hosting rights: Harbhajan explicitly called for the ICC to ensure “justice,” suggesting that Pakistan should be barred from hosting future global events if they fail to honour current commitments.

The former spinner’s rant underscores a growing frustration within the cricketing fraternity over the “on-again, off-again” nature of Indo-Pak fixtures. As the February 15 deadline approaches, the ball is firmly in the PCB’s court. Will they follow through with the boycott and risk international isolation, or will the lure of the world’s most-watched cricket match prevail?

Also READ: Pakistan’s boycott of India match in T20 WC 2026: List of teams that forfeited ICC event matches

Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina

Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina have etched their names into tennis history, becoming the first mothers to be ranked inside the WTA Tour’s top 10 at the same time — a milestone the governing body has hailed as “an incredible moment for women’s sport”.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Switzerland’s Bencic made her return to the elite bracket in January, breaking back into the top 10 for the first time since stepping away from competition in September 2023 following the birth of her daughter, Bella. In the latest rankings released on Monday, she was joined by Ukraine’s Svitolina, who climbed into the top 10 after a run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Svitolina is the mother of Skai.The landmark moment has also shone a spotlight on the WTA’s Family Focus Program, which in recent years has aimed to make elite tennis more compatible with motherhood. The initiative includes ranking protection during pregnancy, postpartum return-to-play support and paid maternity leave — measures that both Bencic and Svitolina used via the Special Ranking Rule for returning mothers.“Two mothers ranked inside the WTA’s Top 10 rankings for the first time is an incredible moment for tennis and for women’s sport,” said WTA chief executive Portia Archer. “It not only highlights the exceptional achievements of Belinda and Elina, but also reaffirms the WTA’s commitment to creating an environment where mothers can continue to compete and succeed at the very highest level.”Ranked ninth, Bencic described her return as deeply personal and hard-earned. “Coming back to the WTA Top 10 one year after returning to competition after maternity leave is something I am incredibly proud of,” she said. “Very few people know how difficult that journey is.”Svitolina, now ranked 10th, echoed those sentiments. “It’s a dream to return to the WTA Top 10. Doing it as a mother means so much to me,” she said.At the top of the rankings, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek retained their positions as world No. 1 and No. 2, while newly crowned Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina climbed two places to No. 3. Amanda Anisimova, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini rounded out the top eight.

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NEW DELHI: Air India has launched a fleet-wide inspection of fuel control switches on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft after a malfunction was reported on a flight from London Heathrow to Bengaluru.The move follows an incident earlier this week in which a pilot flagged a defect in the fuel control switch of a Boeing 787-8 aircraft after landing in Bengaluru. The aircraft, which operated the London–Bengaluru flight, was immediately grounded for detailed checks.Confirming the action, Air India’s senior vice president for flight operations, Manish Uppal, informed Boeing 787 pilots that the airline had initiated a precautionary re-inspection of the entire Dreamliner fleet.“Following the reported defect involving a fuel control switch on one of the B787 aircraft, our engineering team has escalated the matter to Boeing for priority evaluation,” Uppal said in an internal communication, PTI quoted sources.“In the interim, while we await Boeing’s response, our engineers — out of an abundance of caution — have initiated precautionary fleet-wide re-inspection of the Fuel Control Switch (FCS) latch to verify normal operations,” he added.Uppal further informed pilots that no adverse findings had been reported so far on the aircraft that have already undergone re-inspection.He also directed crew members to promptly report any defects noticed during operations and to ensure that all mandatory checks are completed before accepting an aircraft for service.At present, Air India operates 33 Boeing 787 aircraft. These include 26 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners from the legacy Air India fleet and seven Boeing 787-9 aircraft, of which six were inducted from Vistara and one is a custom-made plane added to the fleet in January this year.The latest inspections come amid heightened scrutiny of the aircraft’s fuel control system. The functioning of the fuel control switch has been under focus since a fatal crash involving a Boeing 787-8 last June, in which 260 people lost their lives. The preliminary investigation report into that accident had pointed to a possible fuel supply cutoff soon after take-off.Air India had carried out similar inspections last year following the tragic crash.The airline has now assured that all necessary precautions are being taken and that the issue has been escalated to Boeing for further technical evaluation.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang seem to be going all out publicly to prove that all is well between the two companies. However, reports after reports say that all is not well between the two AI giants. According to a report in Reuters, OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and it has sought alternatives since last year. The report quotes as many as eight sources familiar with the matter, potentially complicating the relationship between the two companies.Out of these eight sources, seven sources reportedly said that OpenAI is not satisfied with the speed at which Nvidia’s hardware can spit out answers to ChatGPT users for specific types of problems such as software development and AI communicating with other software. The company needs new hardware that would eventually provide about 10% of OpenAI’s inference computing needs in the future, one of the sources told Reuters. This comes with what analysts see as a shift in ChatGPT-maker’s strategy, which is the company’s increasing emphasis on chips used to perform specific elements of AI inference, the process when an AI model responds to customer queries and requests.

What may be causing tension between OpenAI and Nvidia

As Reuters report says, “Nvidia’s graphics processing chips are well-suited for massive data crunching necessary to train large AI models like ChatGPT that have underpinned the explosive growth of AI globally to date. But AI advancements increasingly focus on using trained models for inference and reasoning, which could be a new, bigger stage of AI, inspiring OpenAI’s efforts. The ChatGPT-maker’s search for GPU alternatives since last year focused on companies building chips with large amounts of memory embedded in the same piece of silicon as the rest of the chip, called SRAM. Squishing as much costly SRAM as possible onto each chip can offer speed advantages for chatbots and other AI systems as they crunch requests from millions of users.” Last year, OpenAI struck deals with AMD and others for GPUs built to rival Nvidia’s. In fact, sources say OpenAI’s deal with AMD didn’t go very well with partner Nvidia. This AI inference has become the new front in the competition. This decision by OpenAI and others to seek out alternatives in the inference chip market marks a significant test of Nvidia’s AI dominance and comes at a time when the two companies are in investment talks. In September, Nvidia said it intended to pour as much as $100 billion into OpenAI as part of a deal that gave the chipmaker a stake in the startup and gave OpenAI the cash it needed to buy the advanced chips. In a joint announcement unveiling the September deal with Sam Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Jensen Huang called the deal “the largest computing project in history.” The deal was expected to close within weeks, however, negotiations have dragged on for months. New reports claim that Nvidia is now planning to halve its investments.According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has privately criticized OpenAI for what he has described as a lack of discipline in OpenAI’s business approach and expressed concern about the competition it faces from the likes of Google and Anthropic.In November, Nvidia said that it was committing to invest up to $10 billion into Anthropic. In a filing in the same month, Nvidia reportedly said that there was no assurance that it would “enter into definitive agreements with respect to the OpenAI opportunity or other potential investments, or that any investment will be completed on expected terms, if at all.”

Sam Altman and Jensen Huang deny any rift, but ..

In the past few days both OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have strongly denied reports of any tension between the two companies. Last week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang brushed off a report of tension with OpenAI, saying the idea was “nonsense” and that Nvidia planned a huge investment in OpenAI. A spokesperson for OpenAI in a separate statement said that the company relies on Nvidia to power the vast majority of its inference fleet and that Nvidia delivers the best performance per dollar for inference.OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman too wrote in a post on Twitter that Nvidia makes “the best AI chips in the world” and that OpenAI hoped to remain a “gigantic customer for a very long time”.

India vs Pakistan (Getty Images)

NEW DELHI: Even as the row over Pakistan’s decision to boycott its men’s T20 World Cup group-stage clash against India continues to escalate, there is no indication that the fallout has spilled over into the women’s game. The Pakistan Women’s A team is set to play India Women’s A at the Rising Stars Asia Cup in Bangkok, with no instructions received so far to boycott the fixture, reported ESPNcricinfo on Monday.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!According to the report, preparations for the Rising Stars Asia Cup, which begins on February 13, are progressing as scheduled. Pakistan Women’s A and India Women’s A are due to meet on February 15 — the same day the Pakistan men’s team is slated to face India in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, a match the Pakistan government has said its team “shall not take the field” for, citing no reasons in a post on X.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) issued a press release on Sunday announcing the Women’s A squad for the tournament, hours after the boycott of the men’s World Cup clash was made public. Pakistan Women’s A are placed in Group A alongside India A, UAE and Nepal, underlining that, at least for now, the women’s fixture remains unaffected.ESPNcricinfo further reported that while speculation is rife over potential sanctions against the PCB, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is yet to decide whether a Board meeting is required to discuss the issue. Any such deliberations would involve the 12 Full Member boards, three Associate representatives and the ICC chair, but no emergency meeting has been called so far.The ICC has already made its stance clear, warning that “selective participation” is difficult to reconcile with the fundamental premise of global tournaments built on integrity, fairness and consistency. While the men’s India-Pakistan clash hangs in uncertainty, the absence of any boycott directive for the women’s team suggests a sharp contrast between the two situations.