Virat Kohli eclipses Dhoni to become most successful Indian Test captain
Kingston: Virat Kohli has surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to become India's most successful Test skipper after the team recorded its 28th win under his leadership, a 257-run hammering of the West Indies here.
The 28 wins have come from 48 matches for Kohli as captain. His predecessor Dhoni led India to 27 wins from 60 Test matches during his tenure.
Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin are third and fourth in the list of successful Indian Test skippers with 21 and 14 wins respectively.
Overall, former South Africa skipper Graeme Smith remains the most successful skipper in the world with 53 Test wins, followed by ex-Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who recorded 48 Test wins in his captaincy tenure.
India have made a superb start to the World Test Championship and the win in the second match not only helped them sweep the series 2-0 but also put them on top of championship points table.
With 120 points from two games, India lead the nine-team table even though Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa are yet to begin their bilateral campaigns in the championship.
Under Kohli, India have achieved some memorable victories in both India and abroad. Earlier this year, India clinched their maiden Test series in Australia, beating the hosts 2-1 in their own backyard.
In the match here, India entered the fourth day needing eight wickets to win and Kohli's men completed the task after lunch, dismissing the hosts for 210 in 59.5 overs in their chase of a near-impossible target of 468.
The bowling quartet of Ishant Sharma (2/37 in 12 overs), Mohammed Shami (3/65 in 16 overs), Jasprit Bumrah (1/31 in 11 overs) and lone spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/58 in 16.5 overs) were relentless in their pursuit of keeping the home team batsmen on a tight leash.
Such was India's dominance in the two Tests that West Indies couldn't even cross 250 in any of their four innings and the only half-century was scored by Shamarh Brooks (50) in this game.
It was one of the most satisfying tours for skipper Kohli as his team claimed dominating triumphs in all three formats (3-0 in T20Is, 2-0 in ODIs, and 2-0 in Tests).
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3 US troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
Washington (AP): Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the US attacks on Iran, the military said Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
Central Command described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
The US military also denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn't even come close.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops could be killed or injured in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future.”
Following the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other leaders, Iran's counterattacks have struck US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the US raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven US troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump's State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The US military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country's government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
