Jharsuguda, Feb 11: As many as four died and eight are critically injured in a head-on collision between a troller and a pick van on NH 49 near Junion square under Lakhanpur block in Jharsuguda district this noon.
All the critically injured were first rushed to Lakhanpur Community Health Centre (CHC) and then shifted to Jharsuguda medical.
Their identity is not known as of now.
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Lakhanpur police reached the spot and started an investigation.
Sri Lanka, July 27: Ahead of the first T20I against Sri Lanka, India's newly appointed T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav, opened up on his bond with head coach Gautam Gambhir, who was one of his first big supporters during his early Indian Premier League (IPL) days with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
During Suryakumar's four-year-stint with KKR, Gambhir was the captain, and he expressed so much faith in the batter that at one point, he was the vice captain of the team.
India's tour of Sri Lanka begins with the first T20I on Saturday and consists of three T20Is and three ODIs. This is Gambhir's first assignment as head coach after being appointed to the position earlier in July after Rahul Dravid vacated the post following the ICC T20 World Cup win in the West Indies.
Suryakumar played 54 matches for KKR from 2014 to 2017. He scored 608 runs in 41 innings at an average of 22.52 and a strike rate of over 131, with one half-century. Gambhir was one of Suryakumar's biggest early support systems, and it was evident in the fact that the batter was once even the vice-captain of KKR.
Speaking ahead of the match in a pre-match press conference, Suryakumar said, "Our bond (him and Gambhir) has always been special."
"From 2014 till now, it has been exactly 10 years. In 2018, I joined another [IPL] franchise and he (Gambhir) joined another franchise. But we used to talk regularly about the game. When he used to play with another team, I used to play with him. We used to discuss the game to see if we could do better in that match."
"The learning has been going on since six years when I was not with him. This bond is always special. We have talked a lot, but not so much. But he knows my body language. When I see his body language, I know what he wants to say to me. And what I want to say to him. When I say no, he understands what he wants and what I want. So this bond is very special between coach and captain. I am very excited for this journey ahead of me," he concluded his point.
Suryakumar also backed the young Indian players to fill the shoes of stars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja, who retired from T20Is after a triumphant ICC T20 World Cup campaign in West Indies and USA. Though he acknowledged that filling shoes of these legends would be difficult, the newer players have a lot of experience and fine performances under their belt.
"It will be difficult to fill the shoes, but obviously people have practiced so much, new players have come, they are already doing well when they play franchise cricket," Suryakumar said.
"And the matches they played for India, they have done very well in that too. So I have a lot of trust in those three, who have just come in their place, that they will do well," he added.
India's tour of Sri Lanka will kick-off with a three-match T20I series, followed by a three-match ODI series. The Pallekele International Stadium will be hosting the T20I leg of the series, while the R Premadasa is getting to host the 50-over matches.
The three ODIs will be held on August 2, August 4, and August 7.
Both teams will be taking to the field with new head coaches. While legendary all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya has been named as the interim head coach for Lankan Lions, it will also be the first assignment for former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir as the head coach, succeeding T20 World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid.
India's last tour of Sri Lanka for a bilateral white-ball series came back in July 2021, with Dravid coaching the Shikhar Dhawan-led side. India won the ODI series 2-1, while Sri Lanka secured the T20I series by the same margin.
T20I Squad for Sri Lanka series: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj.
ODI Squad for Sri Lanka series: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.
(ANI)
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Kupwara, July 27: An encounter broke out between Army troops and terrorists in the forest area along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Macchil sector of Kupwara on Saturday, defence officials said.
Further details are awaited.
In the last few months, there has been a spike in terror attacks in the Jammu region, including the terror attack on an army convoy in Kathua and encounters in Doda and Udhampur.
(ANI)
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Bhubaneswar, July 27: Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi left for New Delhi on Friday evening to attend the 9th Governing Council Meeting of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) in the national capital today.
According to the official sources, CM Majhi will attend the crucial meeting of NITI Aayog along with Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja.
CM Majhi is expected to highlight the issues related to Odisha's financial needs at the meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the meeting. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Viksit Bharat@2047,” with a central focus on making India a developed nation.
According to a statement by the Centre, the meeting aims to foster participative governance and collaboration between the Centre and state governments, enhancing the quality of life for both rural and urban populations by strengthening the delivery mechanisms of government interventions.
The Prime Minister is the Chairperson of NITI Aayog. Other attendees will include Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of States and Union Territories, Union Ministers as Ex-officio Members and Special Invitees, and the Vice Chairman and Members of NITI Aayog.
Chief Ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states are set to attend the meeting. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, an NDA ally, has not confirmed his attendance yet.
Several Chief Ministers belonging to the opposition parties have boycotted the meeting. However, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee will attend the meeting, sources said.
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