I don't know how we are going to get Virat Kohli out: England all-rounder Moeen Ali
Chennai, Jan 31: England all-rounder Moeen Ali doesn't know how they are going to tackle Virat Kohli in the upcoming Tests against India and feels the batting maestro will be extra motivated to fire after missing his team's incredible triumph in Australia.
Kohli, who had returned home after the opening Test debacle against Australia for the birth of his child, is back to captain the side in the four-match series against England, beginning here on February 5.
"How do we get him out? He's obviously an amazing player, world-class, he's very motivated to do well and I'm sure he'll be even more motivated after they did well in Australia and he had to leave for the birth of his child," Moeen told reporters during a video conference.
"I don't know how we're going to get him out because I don't think he has any sort of weakness but we have a good bowling attack, some pace in the line-up.
"He's a great guy and a good friend of mine -- we don't talk too much about cricket. We do a little bit but not too much."
Back in the fold after recovering from COVID-19, Moeen said he has still got "match-winning performances" in him and is ready to take on India.
Besides the Tests, India and England will play three ODIs and five T20Is.
Moeen said playing Test cricket is his "biggest motivation" and he has "little targets", which he is wants to achieve in the upcoming series.
"Whether or not I get picked is another matter ... in terms of being ready to play, I think I'll be fine to play, I'll be ready. I've waited long enough," he said.
"I still feel I've got wickets and runs in me and match-winning performances within me. I have little targets I want to achieve first. I am not too far away from getting 200 wickets.
"I know people say they don't look at these things but it would be something I would look at. Then I would set another target after that."
The 33-year-old had tested positive for COVID-19 upon the England team's arrival in Sri Lanka and missed the two Tests there, which the visitors won for a series sweep.
"I'm all right now. Once I tested positive, I just wanted to get it over and done with really. It has been tough but I'm a big believer in 'after hardship comes ease'. Hopefully there is ease after this," said Moeen, who had just five or six net sessions due to the time he had to spend in quarantine.
Moeen, who has 181 wickets and 2782 runs in Test cricket, had taken a break from the traditional format after missing out on a full contract in 2019.
"I enjoyed the break and played a few leagues around the world ... but ultimately it was Test cricket that I missed.
"When you're playing Test cricket, you're on top of your game in terms of your batting and bowling; your technique. I don't think it's great when you're just playing white-ball," he said.
Moeen said red-ball cricket makes for a better T20 cricketer.
"When you are playing red-ball cricket, you are hitting a lot more balls, you're bowling a lot more too. With Twenty20 cricket, as much as it is hitting sixes, fours etc, the basis of your technique has to be good," he said.
"It doesn't surprise me that Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes are the two best T20 players around and they play Test cricket. Their defence is pretty solid and it gives you more confidence. When I was playing all forms, I felt was better with my white-ball."
He also asked people to not pay any heed to conspiracy theories and get vaccinated for the virus.
"There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there but it's just medicine evolving. In our community, people are sometimes a bit cautious. But for things to get back to normal, it's important that we do," he said.
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Iran launches new attacks, saying US will 'bitterly regret' sinking warship, calls for Trump's blood
Dubai (AP): Iran launched a new wave of attacks Thursday morning at Israeli and American bases and threatened that the United States would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean and a religious leader called for “Trump's blood,” while Israel said it had begun a “large-scale” attack on Tehran.
Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iranian state television said additional strikes also targeted US bases. The Israeli military said it launched targeted attacks in Lebanon at the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Iran's capital, without elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in Tehran a short time later.
The US Navy sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena Tuesday night in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 Iranian sailors, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi decried Thursday as “an atrocity at sea.”
“Frigate Dena, a guest of India's Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” he wrote on social media. “Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.”
Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, in one of the few clerical statements so far from Iran, said the country was “on the verge of a great test” and called on state television for "the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump's blood.”
"Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders,'” he said in a rare call for violence from an ayatollah, one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam.
The US and Israel launched the war Saturday, targeting Iran's leadership and killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as its missile arsenal and nuclear program. Leaders have suggested that toppling the government is a goal, but the exact aims and timelines have repeatedly shifted, signalling an open-ended conflict.
The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. It has disrupted the supply of the world's oil and gas, snarled international shipping and stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers in the Middle East.
Threats expanding across the Middle East
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Countries around the region braced for potential dangers Thursday, a day after Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened “the complete destruction of the region's military and economic infrastructure.”
Qatar's Interior Ministry said authorities were evacuating residents near the US Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution, without providing further details.
Fighter jets could be heard overhead in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan.
A new attack off the coast of Kuwait appeared to expand the area where commercial shipping was in danger.
An explosion rocked the area early Thursday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre run by the British military. It said a tanker apparently came under attack, but the agency did not offer a cause. Iran in the past has attacked ships by attaching limpet mines to them.
Prior attacks since fighting began Saturday have happened in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, which connects it to the Persian Gulf and through which about a fifth of the world's oil is shipped.
US stocks rebounded Wednesday after oil prices stopped spiking and reports gave encouraging updates on the American economy. But oil prices resumed their ascent early Thursday and Brent crude, the international standard, is now up some 15 per cent from the start of the conflict as Iranian attacks have disrupted traffic through the strait.
Buildings of Iranian military and security forces targeted
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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said a torpedo from an American submarine sank an Iranian warship Tuesday night in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued, while its navy recovered 87 bodies.
The Iranian ship was on its way back from participating in a February exercise hosted by the Indian navy. The US Navy also participated in the same exercise with a P-8A Poseidon aircraft, which is employed for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare as well as surveillance and reconnaissance.
Shifting timelines for US operations
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During his Pentagon briefing, Hegseth did not give a definitive timeline for US operations, which Trump has said could last for a month or longer.
“You can say four weeks, but it could be six. It could be eight. It could be three,” Hegseth said. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we're going to keep them off balance.”
US and Israeli military officials say launches from Iran have declined as their attacks have taken out ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. Israel's Homefront Command announced it was easing restrictions that closed workplaces nationwide. It said workplaces could reopen Thursday if there is a shelter nearby. Schools would remain closed.
Still, explosions sounded early Thursday in Israel, which said its defensive systems were moving to intercept at least three waves of Iranian missiles.
At least 1,045 people have been killed in Iran, the country's Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said Wednesday. Eleven people have died in Israel. Six US troops have been killed, including a major whose identity was released Wednesday.
Another eight people were killed in Lebanon, including two in a building struck by the Israeli military in the Beddawi refugee camp in the coastal city of Tripoli on Thursday and three on a coastal highway, authorities said. The Israeli military did not immediately say who it targeted in the strikes.
In two near-simultaneous Israeli drone strikes in Beirut's southern suburbs late Wednesday, two vehicles were hit, killing three people and wounding six, the health ministry said. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hezbollah member, adding that further details would follow.
Israel's military also said it had hit “several command centres” used by Hezbollah in Beirut and showed video footage of a building being hit, but provided no further details.
Iran's clerics are choosing a new supreme leader
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Iran's leaders are scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years. It is only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen.
Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement. Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei's son, has long been considered among them, though he has never held a government position.
In a sign that Iran's leadership will only seek to consolidate its power, the head of the judiciary warned that “those who cooperate with the enemy in any way will be considered an enemy.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on X that Iran's next supreme leader “will be a target for elimination” if he continues to threaten Israel, the US and others.
