Axar Patel, Yashaswi Jaiswal break into top 10 of ICC T20I rankings
Dubai, Jan 17: Riding on two excellent outings against Afghanistan in the ongoing series, India left-arm spinner Axar Patel on Wednesday leaped to his career-best fifth place, while opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal rose to the sixth spot in the latest ICC men's T20I player rankings.
Patel's hauls of two for 23 and two for 16 in India's identical six-wicket wins over Afghanistan in the first two T20Is of their three-match series have also lifted him two places to 16th among all-rounders.
Jaiswal's 34-ball 68 in the first T20I in Indore lifted him seven places to a career-best sixth position, while other left-hander Shivam Dube's successive unbeaten knocks of 60 and 63 have helped him shoot up from 265th to 58th.
Batter Shubman Gill moved up seven places to 60th while left-handed batsman Tilak Verma gained three places to joint-61st while left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh jumped four places to 21st spot.
Among the Afghans, Najibullah Zadran (up one place to 46th) and Mohammad Nabi (up two places to 54th) moved up in the batting rankings.
New Zealand's Finn Allen, whose two innings of 34 off 15 and 74 off 41 against Pakistan helped him to reach 16th among batters. His teammate Tim Southee, who took six wickets in the first two matches, is up eight places to 18th in the bowlers' list.
Pakistan's star batter Babar Azam is up one place to fourth after notching two consecutive half-centuries against New Zealand.
The bowling rankings saw Sri Lanka spinners Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana take joint-third position.
Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf's haul of five wickets in two matches against the Kiwis have lifted him two places to joint 14th.
Sri Lanka and India stars command the spotlight in a host of changes in the latest ICC Men's Player Rankings 📝
— ICC (@ICC) January 17, 2024
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
