Ashwin to lead Kings XI punjab in IPL

new delhi: Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was on Monday named captain of the IPL side Kings XI Punjab, who also have Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle in their ranks. Ashwin has two IPL titles during his eight-year stint with Chennai Super Kings and has also played for Pune Supergiants."I feel honoured to be trusted with the responsibility of leading such a talented bunch of cricketers. This is indeed a proud moment for me," said Ashwin, who is currently out-of-favour in India's ODI and T20 scheme of things. Ashwin played his last T20 for India seven months back in July, 2017 against the West Indies and last ODI against the same opponents last June.

Ramkumar achieves career-best ranking

new delhi: Ramkumar Ramanathan on Monday achieved his career-best ranking of 133rd position after jumping seven places even as country's top ranked tennis player Yuki Bhambri dropped four places to 105. The 23-year-old Ramkumar had earned 12 points for qualifying into the main draw of the ATP Delray Beach Open but had lost in the first round. Yuki fell in the qualifying event for the Dubai Duty Free championships on Sunday. In the doubles, Rohan Bopanna continues to be India's top ranked player at number 20 and was followed by Divij Sharan (54, -3), Leander Paes and (52, -3). In the doubles, injured Sania Mirza moved up a spot to number 13.

Pro Kabaddi organisers start talent hunt

mumbai: Ahead of Season 6 of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), the popular league's organisers and the All India Kabaddi Federation have decided to conduct a pan-India talent hunt covering 18 cities to unearth new players ahead of the auctions. This would be followed by the scouting for talent in the cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Thrissur, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Lucknow, Vishakhapatnam, Patna, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Indore, Imphal, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar and Ahmedabad. The cities have been chosen based on expert assessment of kabaddi talent spotted in local tournaments held in the past. The phase one of the "Future Kabaddi Heroes" programme would be conducted over 2-3 days per city.

Vijender eyes third belt on Pro Circuit

mumbai: Unconquered since making his debut on the Pro Circuit, celebrated Indian boxer Vijender Singh is likely to compete for his third title in April and go for his maiden World title by the end of this year. The current WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight Champion and WBO Oriental Super Middleweight Champion Vijender, who won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, said he is targetting Commonwealth title and would like to add a World title in his kitty. "I have got two (belts) now, going for a third one. Hopefully, end of this year we will go for world title."

Subir-Nirav narrow lead to set exciting finale

murti (west bengal): The race for the champion's crown in the JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 6 got hotter, with the duo of Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta narrowing the gap against defending champions Sheikh Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Mustafa to just one penalty point at the end of Day 3 on Monday. TSD kings Ali-Mustafa restricted themselves to 31 penalty points on Sunday to bring their total score to 85 penalty points. While the champions of Desert Storm, the Roy-Mehta team picked up just 24 penalty points to notch up a total score of 86 penalty points, to set up a grand finish.