Mumbai: Indian Cricket Team captain Rohit Sharma has reportedly received three traffic challans for speeding on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The incident occurred while the opening batter was en route to join the Indian team in Pune for their upcoming game against Bangladesh on Thursday, October 19. Sharma was allegedly driving at speeds exceeding 200 km/h, leading to the issuance of three online traffic challans for reckless driving, according to a report by Pune Mirror.

Ahead of the crucial clash against Bangladesh, reports suggest that Sharma was driving a Lamborghini with a number plate displaying his highest One Day International (ODI) score '264'.

Authorities have raised concerns about the Indian captain's reckless driving on a busy highway, especially in the midst of the World Cup tournament. Suggestions have been made that Sharma should travel in the team bus accompanied by a police escort for enhanced safety.

Despite this off-field incident, the 36-year-old cricketer has been in sensational form during the ongoing World Cup. Sharma is the leading run-scorer for India in the tournament, amassing 217 runs from three innings at an impressive average of 72.33 and a strike rate of 141.83. He has recorded one century and one fifty in the tournament.

In the second match against Afghanistan, Sharma delivered a remarkable performance, scoring 131 runs off 84 balls and breaking several records in the process. He achieved the fastest hundred by an Indian batter in World Cups (63 balls), the highest number of sixes in international cricket (562), the most hundreds in ODI World Cup (7 hundreds), joint-fastest to 1000 runs in ODI World Cup (19 innings), and the third-highest number of centuries in One Day Internationals (ODIs) (31).

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New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".

In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."

"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."

"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.

The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.

According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.

The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.

New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.

Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.

The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.

In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".

"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.