Dubai, Jan 22 : India's fast-rising wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was Tuesday named the International Cricket Council's Emerging Player of the Year in the world body's annual awards.

The 21-year-old Pant was picked by the ICC's voting academy for a stellar show in his breakthrough Test year in 2018.

He became the first Indian wicket-keeper to score a Test century in England, and equalled the record for the most catches taken in a Test, with 11 against Australia in Adelaide in December.

He was also the first Indian wicketkeeper to score a Test hundred in Australia.

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Sabarkantha (Gujarat) (PTI): Six women were killed and eight other persons injured after a private bus crashed into a van on a highway in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district on Wednesday, police said.

The van was ferrying women from Modasa in Aravalli district when a speeding bus hit it from behind on National Highway 48 connecting Shamlaji to Himmatnagar in the district, Deputy Superintendent of Police A K Patel said.

According to police, the women were part of a catering team for social events. They were travelling from Modasa in the neighbouring Aravalli district to Hunj village in Himmatnagar to attend a function when they met with the accident.

Six women passengers of the van were killed, Patel said.

Seven other women and the van driver suffered injuries, according to police.

The injured persons were rushed to the Himmatnagar civil hospital. The condition of two of them was critical, the hospital's medical officer, Dr Dhrupad Chauhan, said.

The bodies were sent to a government hospital for a postmortem.