THE HIMALAYAN MAIL 11JAMMU SATURDAY JULY 10, 2021

NEW DELHI, JULY09: A strong medal con-tender at the Tokyo Games,ace Indian shuttler PVSindhu on Friday admittedthat she has got a favourabledraw but insisted that shehas to be on top of her gamesince no match will be easyat the Olympic level.

Reigning world championand Rio Games silver medal-list, Sindhu has been drawnwith Hong Kong's CheungNgan Yi (ranked 34th) andIsrael's Ksenia Polikarpova(ranked 58th) in Group J ofthe women's singles event.

"It's a good draw in thegroup stage. Hong Kong girlplays well and it's going to bea good match," Sindhu, whois world number seven, saidin a release issued by Bad-minton Association of India(BAI).

"Everybody is going to bein top form, I hope I do well.Every match is important, soI will take match by match.This is the Olympics and it isnot going to be easy, eachpoint is very important,"said the sixth seed.

Sindhu has an all-winrecord against her groupstage opponents Ngan Yiand Polikarpova in the fiveand two encounters playedso far against them respec-tively.

In men's singles, WorldNo. 15 B Sai Praneeth has

been placed in Group Dalongside World No. 29Mark Caljouw of Nether-lands and World No. 47 Is-raeli shuttler Misha Zilber-man.

"It's a mixed draw, not sotough and not so good. Ihave to be 100 percent towin all matches and it will bea good match for me,"World Championshipsbronze medallist Praneethsaid.

World no 10 men's dou-bles pair of Chirag Shettyand SatwiksairajRankireddy, however, areexpected to face a stiff chal-lenge in the league stage.

The duo has been placed

in the Group A alongsidetop-seed and World No. 1Indonesian pair of KevinSanjaya Sukamuljo andMarcus Fernaldi Gideon,who also finished at the topin the Race to Tokyo stand-ing, and World No. 3 LeeYang and Wang Chi-Linfrom Chinese Taipei.

England's Ben Lane andSean Vendy are the fourthpair placed in Group A.

"It's a very even groupwhich means even if youlose a match, you are still inthe game because nobodyknows what will happen,"India's Danish doublescoach Mathias Boe said.

"We'll focus on preparing

as much as possible in thelast few weeks. We will at-tack on court and hopefully,we get good results. I ampositive, it's a good chal-lenge for us."

In the singles category, 42players are divided into 14groups with each group con-sisting of three players. Topplayer from each group willqualify for the knockoutstage.

While in the doubles cate-gory, 16 pairs are dividedinto four groups with toptwo pairs from each groupadvancing to the last-eightstage.

Badminton matches willkick-start from July 24.

It's not going to be easy at Olympics: Sindhu

NEW DELHI, JULY09: Sri Lankan team's dataanalyst G T Niroshan hastested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the limitedovers series against India,the country's cricket boardsaid on Friday, a day afterits batting coach GrantFlower contracted the virus.

"The Data Analyst of theSri Lanka National Team,G. T. Niroshan, has testedpositive for Covid 19," SriLanka Cricket (SLC) said ina statement.

"He was found to be posi-tive, following a PCR Testcarried out among the Na-tional Players, Coaches, andSupport Staff yesterday, fol-lowing the identification ofGrant Flower as Covid Posi-tive.

"Niroshan is now under-

going due medical proto-cols."

On Thursday, Sri Lanka'sbatting coach Flower testedpositive for COVID-19, 48hours after the squad's ar-rival from England and lessthan a week before thehome series against India.

All the other players whoare quarantining have alsobeen tested.

Before testing negative,

Sri Lanka's squad hadfaced an anxious wait forthe results of their PCRtests on returning home,following a COVID-19 out-break in the England squadafter the final match oftheir tour in Bristol on Sun-day.

Sri Lanka are set to takeon India in a six-matchwhite-ball series startingJuly 13. Flower had been

isolated from the rest of thesquad which is undergoinghard quarantine on arrival.

Flower is a former Zim-babwe batsman and waswith the team in Englandwhere it lost both the T20International and ODI se-ries.

Already, three SriLankan players are facingan inquiry for breachingthe COVID-19 protocols inUK during the tour.

England's entire ODIsquad and support staffwere forced into self-isola-tion after a number ofCOVID positive cases, forc-ing the England & WalesCricket Board (ECB) toname an entirely new 18-man squad ahead of the firstODI against Pakistan onThursday.

Now, Sri Lanka's data analystCOVID positive

NEW DELHI, JULY09:Former India batsmanVVS Laxman feels KuldeepYadav and Yuzvendra Cha-hal must feature in the up-coming ODI series againstSri Lanka as bowling in thethree matches will help thespin duo regain confidence.

A vital cog of the Indianbowling attack in limited-overs cricket in the lead-upto the 50-over World Cup in2019, the two wrist spin-ners have seen their stocksdecline recently.

"I would like to see themplay in three ODIs, becausethere are six spinners as yourightly mentioned. I thinkin ODIs, each bowler willget to play 10 overs," Lax-man said during StarSports' show 'Game Plan'.

"So, the more overs theybowl, the more success theyhave, they will get back theconfidence -- especiallyKuldeep Yadav.

"Chahal is a successfuland experienced bowler, heis high on confidence and avery important member,keeping in mind the T20World Cup. I think Kuldeep

requires to get his confi-dence back," he added.

Praising Suryakumar Ya-dav, Laxman, who featuredin 134 Tests, 86 ODIs forIndia, said the 30-year-oldright-hander has the poten-tial to be a part of the WorldT20 squad.

"I was excited seeing theway Suryakumar Yadavbatted at No.3. His firstscoring shot in interna-tional cricket, that tooagainst a quality fast bowlerlike Jofra Archer, shows thekind of confidence, the tal-ent and the skill he pos-sesses - this is a great op-portunity!

"I want him to play all six

matches because he issomeone who can definitelywalk into the T20 WorldCup squad, as far as I amconcerned. I want him togrow and gain the confi-dence of scoring runs, evenat the international level,”he added.

In the recently concludedsecond intra-squad matchin Sri Lanka, Kuldeep andChahal shared as many asfive wickets between them.

In a video shared by SriLanka Cricket's YouTubechannel, Chahal can beseen dismissing NitishRana and KrishnappaGowtham. Kuldeep, whohas been struggling to ce-

ment his place in the na-tional set-up, picked upthree wickets.

Former all-rounder IrfanPathan rallied behindKuldeep Yadav as he said,"The only way you can getconfidence is by playingmatches. And if he keepsbowling more and moreovers, this is where his lostconfidence will come back.He has been a very success-ful bowler in a short span oftime for Indian cricket.

"He has been one of thequickest to take 100 wicketsand he is a wicket-taker. Asfar as the rest of the team isconcerned, you need to givethem confidence. So, I amlooking forward to seeingnot only Kuldeep and Cha-hal bowling together, but Iam hoping that HardikPandya starts bowling.What I am hearing is that ifhe starts bowling, then itmakes it easier to play bothof them."

India are set to take onhosts Sri Lanka in a limitedover series, comprisingODIs and as many T20Is,starting on July 13.

How Kul-Cha can regain confidence

NEW DELHI, JULY09:Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi took stock of In-dia's Olympic preparationson Friday and also an-nounced an interaction withthe country's Tokyo-boundsportspersons on July 13,three days before the firstbatch departs for the Japan-ese capital.The interactionwith the athletes will be heldvirtually owing to theCOVID-19 situation.

"Reviewed preparationsfor facilitation of India's con-tingent at @Tokyo2020.Discussed the logistical de-tails, their vaccination status,the multi-disciplinary sup-port being given," Modi

tweeted."On behalf of 130 crore In-

dians, I would be interactingwith the Olympics bound

athletes on 13th July to wishthem luck. Let us all#Cheer4India," he said.

The earlier announcement

of his July 13 engagementwith athletes was made ongovernment's citizen en-gagement platform, My-GovIndia's twitter page.

The first batch of India'sOlympic-bound athletes willdepart for Tokyo in a charterAir India flight on July17.More than 120 athletesare bound for the Games,even though the IndianOlympic Association is yet toofficially divulge the strengthof the contingent.

In view of the ragingCOVID-19 cases, the TokyoOlympics will be held under astate of emergency in Japanwithout spectators from July23 to August 8.

PM Modi to interact with Tokyo-bound athletes

NEW DELHI, JULY09: Italy midfielder MarcoVerratti has predicted thatSunday's Euro 2020 finalagainst England at Wemb-ley will be "an epic"."Ithink England did a greatjob. They got to the finalfor the first time and thissays a lot. They concededonly one goal, so it is a verysolid team, great players,very balanced, and I thinkthey did deserve to get tothe final. Now it's all downto the final, which I thinkwill be an epic final, andhistory-making eitherway," Sky Sports quotedVerratti during a pressconference on Thursday.

COVID scare: England atrisk from Euro 2020 eu-phoria

Asked about the penaltyincident against Denmark,which helped England incruising into their first ma-jor final since 1966, Verrattisaid: "Perhaps it was a bitof a generous penalty, but itis part of the picture in foot-

ball. I think it was a bit of agenerous penalty."

In the second semi-finalof Euro 2020, Harry Kaneput away the rebound afterKasper Schmeichel savedhis extra-time penalty tohelp England defeat Den-mark 2-1.

"England is a very physi-cal team, and they haveplayers who are very skilledas well. We will face a very,very tough team, they willbe playing at home, theyknow the stadium well. Butit is a dream for us to winthis European Champi-onship," he added.Italy andEngland have faced eachother 27 times, the Azzurriwinning 11 to Three Lions'eight, with eight draws.England suffered tourna-ment-ending losses in boththe teams' previous Euroencounters -- MarcoTardelli's late goal earnedthe Azzurri hosts a 1-0 winin the 1980 group stagewhile Italy prevailed onpenalties (remember An-drea Pirlo's Panenka!) inthe 2012 quarter-finals.

Notably, Italy havenever lost to England at amajor final, with 2-1 FIFAWorld Cup victories in1990 (third-place play-off)and 2014 (group stage) ontop of those Euro tri-umphs.

Italy vs England willbe epic final: Verratti NEW DELHI, JULY 09: For-

mer India cricketer Sanjay Man-jrekar says since skipper ViratKohli is likely to open with RohitSharma in the T20 World Cup,Suryakumar Yadav is an ideal can-didate for the number three slot.

Kohli and Rohit Sharma hadopened for the first time in thefifth match of the home T20 seriesagainst England in March thisyear, raising a 94-run partnership.

They had also opened togetherway back in 2014 against NewZealand. Manjrekar also felt thatSuryakumar Yadav could be thefront-runner for the number threespot, which otherwise belongsskipper Kohli.

"Yes, I think he (Surya) is one ofthe front-runners, especially withthe news coming out that RohitSharma and Virat Kohli are goingto be India's openers. There couldbe a number three slot open forme," Manjrekar said during a vir-tual interaction.

"I don't know what plan theyhave with (KL) Rahul, there cer-tainly is a place for someone likeSuryakumar Yadav. I have rarelyseen somebody bat like that in theIPL for the whole season and evenmore, the kind of batsmanship wehave seen.

"And makes him an ideal num-ber three, he can hit good balls forfours, certainly one of the op-tions," he added.

The T20 World Cup has beenmoved to UAE and Oman fromIndia. The event scheduled to be-gin from October 17.

Talking about the upcoming se-ries against Sri Lanka, startingJuly 13, Manjrekar said he wouldprefer a more consistent IshanKishan instead of Sanju Samson.

Manjrekar says the skills behindthe wickets hold more significancein Test cricket, so in white-ball for-mats having a quality batsman is amuch better option.

"Ishan Kishan is my choice,purely because I am going for themore consistent batter. In ODIcricket keeping is not as crucial asit is in Test matches, in T20s it isnot that vital, so you are reallymaking a choice of a better bat-ter," Manjrekar said.

"Samson is incredible when hegets going, there is nobody betterthan him but consistency is a veryimportant criteria for me and thatis where I would like to backsomebody like Ishan Kishan be-fore I look at Sanju Samson," headded.

Kuldeep has a chance and hewill have to compete for a place inthat Indian T20 World Cup side.He has to prove that he can be abetter option

According to the former bats-man, the Sri Lanka tour will alsobe important for spinner KuldeepYadav.

"I am actually very happy with

the way the selection has beenmade. It is nice to see that KuldeepYadav has been brought back. Inthe last year or in a couple of years,he lost his place.

"In the Indian white ball team,there was a time he was a game-changer along with (Yuzvendra)Chahal. It is nice that the selectorshave given him the opportunity tostake his claim, because he hardlyplays for IPL.

"He has a chance and he willhave to compete for a place in thatIndian T20 World Cup side. Hehas to prove that he can be a betteroption,” added Manjrekar.

Manjrekar also felt that all-

rounder Hardik Pandya can playsolely as a batsman in the team,having done so in the last seasonagainst Australia.

"Hardik proved himself in Aus-tralia that he is perfectly capableof playing in the team as a purebatter, there is no doubt now thathe can do that," he said.

"I am also reading reports thathe has started bowling as well. Hisbowling, all the more-better forIndia. He has shown that he hasthe ability to walk into the team asa pure batter in white-ballcricket," added Manjrekar.

Manjrekar also said that theT20 team that India would put upin the upcoming World Cup wouldbe one of the strongest.

"The T20 World Cup squad isalmost finalised. India's T20cricket is in a very healthy space,so it is not like the 2019 WorldCup, where till the end we didn'tfind our number four.

"This T20 team, that India willput up, will be one of the strongestIndia has ever put up in a T20 for-mat, so I think most of the playersare already pencilled in.

Former India batsman AjayJadeja, who was also part of theinteraction backed young Kar-nataka batsman Devdutt Padikkalto open the innings against SriLanka.

"I love Devdutt Padikkal, he isthe future, but you have gotPrithvi Shaw as well. It all de-pends on the guys who are run-ning the side at that particularmoment.

Suryakumar is ideal at No. 3 in T20 World Cup: Manjrekar