Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen has revealed that spinner Rashid Khan is worried about the situation in Afghanistan and he is not able to get his family out of the country.

Flight operations from around the world are affected at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International (HKI) airport due to the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan. Rashid is currently in the UK playing for Trent Rockets in the inaugural edition of the Hundred.

“There’s a lot of things that are happening at home. We had a long chat here on the boundary talking about it and he’s worried: he can’t get his family out of Afghanistan and there’s a lot of things happening for him,” Pietersen said on Sky Sports.

“For him to turn up and put on a performance like this under the pressure that he is currently under… for him to be able to forget that stuff and navigate his story and continue the momentum that he has – I think that’s probably one of the most heart-warming stories of this Hundred so far,” he added. Taliban terrorists are assuming control of the Afghan capital of Kabul and have taken control of the presidential palace after the country’s president Ashraf Ghani left for Tajikistan.

Kemar Roach’s resilience and grit helped West Indies walk away with a one-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first Test of the two-match series here at Sabina Park on Sunday.

With this win, Windies have gone 1-0 up in the series and have added crucial points in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings. Chasing 168 for the win on Day 4, Windies lost its first three wickets with just 16 runs on the board as Kraigg Brathwaite (2), Kieran Powell (4), and Nkrumah Bonner (5) departed cheaply. Roston Chase and Jermaine Blackwood then provided resistance as the duo put on 68 runs for the fourth wicket.

Faheem Ashraf then one again triggered the collapse for West Indies and the hosts were reduced to 142/8, still needing 26 runs for the win.However, in the end, Roach held his own and he helped Windies register an one-wicket victory.

Earlier on Day 4, Pakistan was bundled out for 203 as Jayden Seales took his maiden fifer in Test cricket. Babar Azam top-scored for Pakistan as he played a knock of 55 runs.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 217 and 203; West Indies 253 and 168/9 (Jermaine Blackwood 55, Kemar Roach 30*, Shaheen Afridi 4-50).

Komalika Bari became the new under-21 recurve world champion at the Youth World Championships in Wroclaw on Sunday. India’s Junior recurve archers also bagged gold in the men’s and the mixed team event.

In the U21 men’s recurve team final the Indian team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Aditya Choudhary, and Parth Sushant Salunkhe clinched the gold medal in a very exciting fashion. Indian trio came from behind to clinch the 5-3 win against Spain. Parth Salunkhe later joined Komalika Bari in the mixed team event, to capture another gold for India. The duo produced a brilliant comeback against the Spanish duo to win 5-3 after being down 2-0 in the match.

Earlier in the under-21 women’s team bronze medal match, the trio of Komalika Bari, Tanisha Verma, and Tisha Punia lost 1-5 against Ukraine in what was India’s first loss of the day.

Komalika Bari then grabbed her second gold of the day in the women’s individual event after defeating Canales Elia of Spain by 7-3 in the final. She became the second Indian woman after Deepika Kumari to claim both the U-21 World Championship and the U-18 title. The cadet title was won by Bari in Madrid in 2019. Earlier, in the U18 men’s recurve team final, top seeds Bishal Changmai, Vickey Ruhal, Amit Kumar edged the team from France in a tight final. Indians see off the French team by 5-3.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Sunday felicitated the Tokyo Olympics medalists Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Dahiya, PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain, Bajrang Punia and the Indian men’s hockey team in Delhi.

The IOA chief Narinder Batra, Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, and MoS Sports Nisith Pramanik were present at the event. “Let me first congratulate and thank all the medal winners who qualified, participated, and won the medals for India. A very big thank you to all of you. You have made India proud,” Anurag Thakur said while addressing the athletes during the felicitation program.

Office of Anurag Thakur on Twitter wrote: “Union Minister @ianuragthakur felicitated Indian Olympic Medalists at a program organised by the Indian Olympic Association.”

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) awarded Olympic champion, Neeraj Chopra, with a cash award of Rs 75 lakh. Meanwhile, wrestler Ravi Dahiya and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu received Rs 50 lakh each for their silver in Tokyo.The bronze medallists shutter PV Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain, and wrestler Bajrang Punia received Rs 25 lakh. The bronze-medal winning men’s hockey team got Rs 10 lakh for each member.

Earlier, the thirty-two Olympic winners, including javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India’s first-ever Gold Medallist in track and field, PV Sindhu, Mirabai Chanu along with two officials of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) attended the 75th Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort on Sunday.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has said that Virat Kohli is not playing well currently and there is a big technical glitch that has come into his game at the moment.

Kohli disappointed with the bat in the second innings of the ongoing Lord’s Test after being dismissed for 20. Kohli chased a wide delivery bowled outside off and he also his wicket to Sam Curran. “That method has been successful for him. He has got 8000 Test runs with that back and across movement. But he is playing at deliveries way outside off stump and a little too early in the innings. This time around, the foot is somewhere else, the bat is somewhere else, which means that he hasn’t really played well,” Gavaskar said on the Sony Sports network.

“It could be about this much-talked-about word intent but in a five-day game, every batsman goes in to score runs. It’s the method that differs,” he added.Further talking about Kohli, Gavaskar said: “When you talk about this trying to take this attack to the opposition approach, and if that is what intent is, it can get you into trouble as we saw. I think every batsman should be left alone to find his own method. This is a Test match.”

“In ODI and T20I, it’s a completely different situation, but over here, what they need to look into is get themselves in and try to play in the old-fashioned V. Play only when you have fought through,” he added.

Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara scored 61 and 45 respectively as India ended Day 4 at 181/6 and the visitors have extended their lead to 154.

England batsman Jonny Bairstow said he has run out of “superlatives” to describe skipper Joe Root’s achievements in the longest format of the game.Root on Saturday became the second England batsman to hit 9000 runs in Test cricket after former skipper Alastair Cook. “He is in second place in the leaderboard among run-scorers in the history of the English game. It is very special to pass 9,000 Test runs in this game. It’s extremely special to score another 180 not out at Lord’s,” said Bairstow in the virtual press conference after the end of the third day’s play.

“I’ve run out of superlatives there, and to see him in the form that he is, playing the way he is, it’s awesome to be out there with him. “It’s awesome to be out there putting on partnerships with him and enjoying every single moment of it as I’ve done over many years,” he added. England were bundled out for 391 in the first innings. Root was left stranded on 180* as James Anderson was dismissed on the final ball of day three. Prior to that Bairstow had helped his captain by hitting crucial 57 runs. “Joe and I, when we were walking out, we were just smiling at each other. How good is it to walk out on a Saturday at Lord’s, with one of your best mates?” said Bairstow.

“That’s exactly what it was. Our partnership was about having fun while we were out there, and to have a full crowd back at Lord’s, with the new stand, with family and friends, was really special. That Lord’s buzz, or hum, or however you want to phrase it, was most definitely back,” he added.England lead by 27 runs and India will come out to bat on Sunday in the second innings. Bairstow however remains skeptical as to who has the advantage in the match going into fourth day.

“I’m not a bookie; I don’t think I’ll ever be one. Let’s see how tomorrow goes. We’ve got a new ball in our hands. We saw it was tough and challenging when they got their second new ball today,” said Bairstow. “We come in tomorrow all fired up; we’ve got guys we’re able to challenge in every way possible. We’ve got the pace of Woody we’ve got the swing of Jimmy we’ve got the nip of Ollie Rob. ‘Not to mention Sammy Curran. It’s going to be a really challenging day hopefully, for the Indians. We’ll be looking to make sure we challenge every part of their game,’ he added.