We have better spinners than India: Afghan captain
Bengaluru, June 11 : Ahead of their Test debut against India this week, Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai has no hesitations in claiming that his side's spinners are better than star Indian duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Afghanistan will become the 12th nation to play Test cricket when they take on India here from Thursday, with the hosts to be without skipper Virat Kohli.
While Kohli is on the sidelines, India will mainly bank on the star duo of Jadeja and Ashwin, the world's fourth and fifth-ranked Test bowlers respectively, to tame the Afghans in their debut Test.
But Stanikzai feels his spin-heavy side, led by star leggie Rashid Khan, teenager Mujeeb Ur Rahman and veteran Mohammad Nabi can more than match the proven Indian duo.
"The whole world knows that (we have good spinners like) Rashid Khan, Mujeeb, Nabi, Rahmat (Shah), Zahir (Khan)," Stanikzai was quoted as saying by espn.
"In Afghanistan, the brilliant thing is that a lot of the young talent that is coming through are spinners, because they all follow Rashid, they follow Nabi, so because of that our spin department is very strong from below.
"In my opinion, we have good spinners, better spinners than India," he added.
Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons, however played down talk that his spinners were better than their opponents, but backed ICC No.1-ranked T20 bowler Rashid to overcome his inexperience at first-class level.
"I don't know about better than India.
"I think Rashid is at a different level now, if he keeps improving, but we haven't seen him that much in Test cricket. Well, we haven't seen him at all in Test cricket, but in four-day cricket we haven't seen him that much. So it's a new frontier for him.
"I'm sure he will conquer it, but whether he will conquer it in the first game, we'll have to see," he said.
The one-off Test gets underway at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
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Congress cites Maniben Patel's diary entries, asks Rajnath to apologise for Babri claim
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Saturday shared diary entries of Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter from a book to rebut Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's claim that India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, and demanded that Singh apologise for spreading "falsehoods".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, claimed the defence minister was spreading falsehoods to “improve his relationship” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Here is Maniben's original diary entry in Gujarati on pages 212-213 in the book ‘Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno’ by CA R S Patel 'Aaresh', published by Sardar Patel Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, 2025,” Ramesh said on X, sharing screenshots of the relevant pages from the book.
“There is a huge difference between what is contained in the original diary entry and what Rajnath Singh ji and his fellow ‘distorians’ are propagating,” Ramesh said.
“The Defence Minister must apologise for the falsehoods he is spreading, simply to improve his relationship with the PM,” he claimed.
The Congress had earlier termed Singh's claim that Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds a “lie” and “WhatsApp university story”, and said the defence minister should not walk in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's path.
Addressing a gathering at Sadhli village in Gujarat's Vadodara district last Tuesday, Singh said Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel didn't allow his plans to succeed.
The BJP had cited a book by Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter to double down on Singh's claims, and said the first prime minister also said he felt "repelled" by some of the temples in south India despite their beauty.
“The source of what Rajnath Singh said is the 'Inside Story of Sardar Patel, Diary of Maniben Patel'," BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had said at a press conference at the party headquarters while responding to media queries on the issue.
Trivedi claimed that on Page 24 of the book, it is written that Nehru also raised the question of the Babri mosque, but Sardar Patel made it clear that the government could not spend any money on building a mosque.
