Blessed With Baby Girl, Rohit Sharma to Miss Final Test in Sydney
Sydney, Dec 31: Indian batsman Rohit Sharma will miss the final Test against Australia as he is traveling back home to be with his just-born girl and wife Ritika Sajdeh.
Rohit will join the ODI squad on January 8 2019, with the first game starting January 12.
Ritika, who is also Rohit's manager, delivered their first child in Mumbai on Sunday.
Rohit was a part of the Indian XI in both their victorious Tests of the ongoing tour. He was forced to miss the second Test in Perth due to a back injury, but recovered for Melbourne where he scored an unbeaten 63 in the first innings. Overall, he has scores of 37, 1, 63* and 5 in his four innings this tour.
The board has decided against naming a replacement for Rohit. The other options for India in the middle order are Hardik Pandya and Parthiv Patel. Hardik, who had missed more than two months of action due to a back injury, had joined the squad after the second Test. Parthiv has been with the side from the start of the tour as a back-up wicketkeeper.
If Hardik returns, India might also consider playing two spinners if the pitch in Sydney is suitable. In that case, they can slot in R Ashwin, if he is fit, or Kuldeep Yadav.
It's unlikely, but India could also bring back one of their regular openers - KL Rahul or M Vijay - and give Hanuma Vihari, who opened in Melbourne, his middle-order slot again.
The final Test starts in Sydney on January 3. India lead the series 2-1.
Courtesy: www.news18.com
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19-yr-old woman found hanging from tree in UP village; juvenile held
Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
