There's no contest, stop calling it rivalry: Suryakumar Yadav's take on Indo-Pak duels
Dubai (PTI): Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav has urged everyone to stop calling the contests against Pakistan a meaningful "rivalry" given how his team has dominated the arch-foes, the most recent demolition act being the six-wicket triumph in a Super 4 match of the ongoing Asia Cup here.
India and Pakistan have faced each other 15 times in T20 Internationals, with the reigning world champions winning 12 of those encounters.
After the comprehensive win on Sunday night here, the proverbial question on the gulf between the two teams was thrown at Suryakumar by a senior Pakistani journalist.
"Sir, my request is that we should now stop calling India vs Pakistan matches a rivalry," Suryakumar responded with a smile.
When the scribe clarified that he was referring to "standards, and not the rivalry", the Indian skipper said it hardly makes things any different.
"Sir, rivalry and standard are all the same. Now what is a rivalry? If two teams have played 15 matches and it's 8-7, that's a rivalry. Here it's 13-1 (12-3) or something. There is no contest," he said before winding up the media conference with a grin.
Opener Abhishek Sharma, who slammed a blazing 39-ball 74 to be the star of India's facile chase of 172, said he did not like the needless belligerence of Pakistan players, which led to verbal altercations. Abhishek shared a 105-run opening wicket stand with Shubman Gill (47).
"Today it was very simple, the way they (Pakistan players) were coming at us for no reason, I didn't like it at all and this is the only way (his aggressive batting) I could give medicine to them," said Abhishek in the post-match presentation.
Both Abhishek and Gill had run-ins with Pakistan pacers Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi during the match.
Besides that, Abhishek was delighted to have shared a wonderful partnership with Gill, someone he shares a close bond from age-group cricket.
"We have been playing since school days, we enjoy each other's company, we thought we would do it and today was the day. The way he was giving it back, I really enjoyed it.
"It's (the way he bats) because the team supports me. That's the intent I show and I'm practicing really hard and if it's my day, I'm gonna win it for my team," he added.
Ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah had an off-day, conceding over 10 runs an over during his four-over spell. But skipper Suryakumar did not read too much into it.
"That's fine, he's not a robot, he will have a bad day someday. But (Shivam) Dube bailed us out of the situation," he said.
Suryakumar was happy to see the way the team fought back after a rather listless first 10 overs where Pakistan made runs in excess of nine runs an over.
"The way the boys are stepping up in every game, it's making my job very easy. The boys showed a lot of character.
"They were calm after the first 10 overs (of India's bowling innings). After drinks, I told them the game starts now," he noted.
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Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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