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Saina loses top ranking, Srikanth jumps to No.3
Jakarta: India’s Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal lost her top spot, sliding to the third position, in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday.
Reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui regained the top spot. Saina failed to defend her Australian Open title last month. Both have advanced to the first round of the Indonesia Open.
Saina currently has 79192 points in the third spot, a rung below Spain’s Carolina Marin (80752), who won the Australian Open title. China’s Xuerui is on top with 85217.
Saina had become the first Indian woman to reach No.1 on April 2 after finishing runner-up to reigning world champion Marin at All England Superseries and winning the India Open in March.
In the men’s singles, India’s Kidambi Srikanth climbed up a place to No.3 — a spot ahead of five-time world champion Lin Dan. Commonwealth Games 2014 champion Parupalli Kashyap is the next best Indian at No.12, followed by H.S. Prannoy, who rose a spot to No.13.
Commonwealth Games 2010 gold medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also rose a place to be ranked No.17 in women’s doubles.
There are no Indians in the top-25 of men’s and mixed doubles rankings.
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.